The first blow in the high-profile copyright dispute in the robotics sector has been struck. A German court has issued a preliminary injunction against the sale of collaborative robots by the local branch of Elite Robots. The company was sued by Teradyne Robotics for infringing its intellectual property rights. The case could have far-reaching consequences for the entire industry.
The Hamburg Regional Court granted Teradyne Robotics’ application and imposed a preliminary injunction on Elite Robots Deutschland GmbH in a case concerning the infringement of copyright in collaborative robot software. The court’s decision means an immediate ban on the offering and distribution in Germany of software deemed to infringe the law, as well as all products containing it. Furthermore, the German branch of the Chinese company must provide detailed information on the scale of the infringements and disclose a list of customers.
The dispute concerns the illegal use of software developed by Universal Robots, a division of Teradyne. We reported at the end of March that the company had filed a complaint with the German authorities. Now that the first court rulings have been handed down, Teradyne has announced further action against distributors and partners who continue to sell the disputed solutions despite the ban.
“Teradyne Robotics will resolutely stand up to competitors who copy its hardware or software, so we are naturally pleased with this ruling. We believe we have irrefutable evidence of copyright infringement, and although this court ruling is not yet final, it clearly indicates that we have a very strong case,” says Jean-Pierre Hathout, CEO of the Teradyne Robotics group.
Teradyne Robotics and the dispute with Chinese competitors
According to industry representatives, the background to the conflict is broader than a single case. The collaborative robot market is growing rapidly, and the number of new manufacturers is increasing month by month.
“The reason we started looking into this is the growing competition from many small companies. A lot of cheap collaborative robot variants are coming onto the market. One of them was the Elite product, and it was clear that it looked very similar to ours,” said David Brandt of Universal Robots in a statement to The Robots Report.
According to Brandt, the software in Elite Robots’ machines was thoroughly analysed by the Universal Robots team in the US. The company’s internal experts found similarities in the code that are difficult to dismiss as coincidental. According to Teradyne, the competitor’s robots even included a function allowing safety features to be disabled. The company has notified the relevant authorities in Denmark, Germany and the US.
Europe against the backdrop of global competition
The economic context of the case is just as significant as the legal issues. According to the Danish daily Børsen, weak growth in industrial production in Europe has hit Teradyne Robotics’ results hard. Revenue fell by 15.5 per cent, with turnover of around 2 billion Danish kroner.
Data from the International Federation of Robotics shows that over half of all robots installed in 2024 went to China. Meanwhile, the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association warns that Germany is beginning to fall behind.
As Jean-Pierre Hathout, CEO of the Teradyne Robotics group, says: “Automation and innovation are critical to our future in industry. We will not stand idly by whilst others illegally copy our proprietary technologies. This not only undermines our research and innovation, but also erodes customer trust.”
The preliminary ruling does not settle the case, but signals the growing determination of companies to defend their intellectual property. The coming months will likely reveal the outcome of the German authorities’ ongoing investigation into the dispute between Teradyne and Elite Robots.
