iRobot’s motion seeks to halt U.S. sales of the Shark IQ Robot™ for patent infringement
BEDFORD, Mass., Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT), a leader in consumer robots and maker of the Roomba® vacuuming robot, today filed a motion for a preliminary injunction ordering SharkNinja Operating LLC and its related entities („SharkNinja“) to halt its sales and distribution of its Shark IQ Robot™. iRobot filed its motion based on infringement of certain iRobot patents related to the Roomba® i7+ robot vacuum with Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal. The motion was filed today in the District of Massachusetts, with a hearing date to be scheduled.
iRobot’s preliminary injunction identifies Shark’s IQ Robot™, released well over a year after the Roomba® i7+, for infringement of three iRobot patents: (1) U.S. Patent No. 9,921,586 (selected room cleaning); (2) U.S. Patent No. 9,550,294 (recharge and resume technology with mapping); and (3) U.S. Patent No. 9,492,048 (auto-evacuation technology). iRobot also filed a complaint for patent infringement involving three other iRobot patents, spanning core iRobot features such as the Roomba® i7+ robot’s roller technology and modularity.
„As demonstrated by our victory at the ITC last year, iRobot takes strong measures to protect our intellectual property and the hard work of our engineering teams,“ said Glen Weinstein, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of iRobot. „We will not stand by while our technology gets brazenly ripped off, and we will continue to vigorously defend our innovations both in the U.S. and abroad.“
The iRobot Roomba® i7+, voted one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2018, represents one of the most advanced robotic vacuums ever built. The i7+ brings a new level of intelligence and automation to robotic vacuum cleaners with the ability to learn, map, and adapt to a home’s floor plan, clean specific rooms by name, and automatically empty its own dust bin. iRobot spent years perfecting its auto-evacuation and smart mapping technology, which are covered by over a dozen patents to date.
Today’s lawsuit against SharkNinja follows iRobot’s win of an exclusion order against multiple respondents at the International Trade Commission.
About iRobot Corporation
iRobot, the leading global consumer robot company, designs and builds robots that empower people to do more both inside and outside of the home. iRobot created the home robot cleaning category with the introduction of its Roomba® Robot Vacuum in 2002. Today, iRobot is a global enterprise that has sold more than 25 million robots worldwide. iRobot’s product line, including the Roomba and the Braava® family of mopping robots, feature proprietary technologies and advanced concepts in cleaning, mapping and navigation. iRobot engineers are building an ecosystem of robots and technologies to enable the smart home. For more information about iRobot, please visit www.irobot.com.
For iRobot Investors
Certain statements made in this press release that are not based on historical information are forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, iRobot Corporation’s expectations concerning management’s plans, objectives and strategies, including strategies for defending the Company’s intellectual property. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. iRobot undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise. For additional disclosure regarding these and other risks faced by iRobot, see the disclosure contained in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K.
SOURCE iRobot Corp.