Teradyne Robotics and Elite Robots Settle Collaborative Robot Lawsuit

Teradyne Robotics and Elite Robots have resolved a legal dispute over collaborative robots and software. The two companies reached a mutual agreement, ending the case without either side disclosing the settlement terms.

The resolution aims to bring the dispute to a close and reflects a shared interest in avoiding the continued time and cost of litigation. Teradyne Robotics, a subsidiary of Teradyne Inc. and parent company of Universal Robots A/S, announced the settlement on Oct. 1.

Neither company revealed the financial or operational terms of the deal.

Teradyne is a leading developer of collaborative robot arms and has sold more than 100,000 robots since it was founded in 2005.

In a joint statement, Jette Withers, Teradyne Robotics’ chief legal officer, and Charles Xie, Elite Robots’ overseas sales director, said the parties resolved their pending legal dispute by mutual agreement. The settlement does not constitute an admission by Elite Robots regarding liability, infringement, validity of intellectual property rights, or any other disputed issue.

Neither company has said what the settlement requires of either side, and there is no public evidence of what Elite Robots agreed to do.

An intellectual property lawyer familiar with this type of litigation, who asked not to be identified and is not involved in the case, told The Robot Report that disputes beginning with an early injunction often end early. The general pattern is that the defendant agrees to stop using the disputed code and pays a fee, but that may not describe this case. That description is a general pattern, not a confirmed account of this settlement.

Teradyne Robotics sued Elite Robots Deutschland GmbH earlier this year, alleging copyright infringement involving Universal Robots software. In April, Teradyne announced that the Regional Court of Hamburg had issued a preliminary injunction against Elite Robots Deutschland.

The injunction restricted the company in Germany in connection with the allegedly infringing software and products containing it. It was not a final finding of infringement. Teradyne claimed that Elite Robots’ cobots and software were similar to its own.