Texas-based AI-powered warehouse robotic solutions provider Brightpick, had one of the most-talked about stands at LogiMAT 2026 in Stuttgart last week when the police were called to ensure it was complying with a preliminary court injunction to not exhibit its newly launched Gridpicker solution.

The day before LogiMAT started – Monday, March 23 - competitor Ocado applied to the Regional Court of Dusseldorf for an injunction claiming patent infringement by Brightpick.

Brightpick’s chief growth officer Andrey Bakholdin, tells Forkliftaction News the company did not have adequate time to respond to the claim and received the injunction on Tuesday midday within hours of the event officially kicking off.

Adopting the saying “there is no such thing as bad publicity” Brightpick, complied with the injunction by covering its exhibit of the product in thick white plastic sheeting with some large text in orange paint – “Why so afraid?” and “So good, they don’t want you to see it”.

“We had the system up and running for about an hour-and-a-half on the first day [of LogiMAT] before we received the injunction notice, and we had a lot of crowds and were receiving a lot of interest until then,” Bakholdin explains.

“When we received the injunction, we covered up the system. And then the police turned up.

“They had a look and saw we covered it up completely, so we were in compliance with the injunction, and then they left.”

Gridpicker is a grid-based fulfilment system Brightpick describes as the “highest-throughput robotic fulfillment system ever developed”.

The system builds on Brightpick’s Autopicker system which was named Best Product for Order Picking, Conveying, Lifting and Storing Technology at LogiMAT 2024.

Bakholdin tells Forkliftaction News Brightpick is confident it has not infringed any patent and has a strong case against Ocado’s claims.

“It has been great to see the support we have received from across the industry in this situation,” he continues standing in front of the covered exhibit. “But it has caused us a lot of distress.

“We are motivated to bring new technology to the market no-one has ever seen before. We have a lot of experience and we are confident in our abilities to develop our own products without infringing on anyone’s patents.”

Ocado spent three years locked in legal battles across a number of different countries, with Norwegian-based AutoStore which had claimed Ocado infringed a number of its patents.

Despite initiating the legal action, in 2023 AutoStore paid Ocado GBP200 million (USD256 million at the time of settlement) to put an end to all outstanding patent litigation claims.

When approached by Forkliftaction News for a comment on the claims against Brightpick, Ocado declined to comment.