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iRobot Defeats Rival in Lawsuit and Earns Big Military Contract

Posted on January 8th, 2008 in Military

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You may remember our posts on the sad plight of iRobot, who had accused their ex-employee, Jameel Ahed, of stealing their design, only to have the US Military award a whopping $280 million dollar contract to said ex-employee, and rejecting iRobot. Oh the injustice!

Weep no more, fellow shareholders and Roomba lovers, because justice has been served! Unfortunately, the price of that justice was a cool $2.9million dollars. But, nobody said good ol’ Lex Rex came cheap.

In addition to the judges in both lawsuits rulling in favor of iRobot – one ruling that Robotic FX had infringed iRobot’s patent, and the other ruling that, Robotic FX stole proprietary information – Robotic FX will now be dissolved and its assets given to iRobot as payment.

In a related settlement, Robotic FX will be dissolved and certain residual assets retained by iRobot at iRobots election. Ahed is prohibited from participating in competitive activities in the robotics industry for five years.


In response to the news, the US DoD awarded iRobot the $280 million dollar contract that was previously awarded to Robotic FX. While iRobot’s stock price has a long way to go from the $24 high it was before all of these events transpired, the future is looking much brighter.





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One Response to “iRobot Defeats Rival in Lawsuit and Earns Big Military Contract”

  1. Thomas Morris Says:

    intellectual property is not really respected in most countries in asia where piracy is so rampant.`*’

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