What has become a milestone in the evolutionary timeline of robotic market development, iRobot sued its former competitor Robotic FX to death last year. At the center of the battle was the Robotic FX version of a robot called The Negotiator which allegedly violated U.S. Patents 6,263,989 and 6,431,296 that relate to robot platform and mobility. Robotic FX is no more but apparently iRobot believed The Negotiator was a pretty good idea, despite having called it a “knock-off” of the Packbot.
Yesterday, iRobot announced the launch of a new member to its robotic product line. The robot? (drumroll please) The Negotiator. From the outside, the robot seems largely unchanged:
We’ll likely never know what kind of software changes were made but the external design looks remarkably similar to its Robotic FX namesake.
To the victor go the spoils of legal war.
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