Teradyne Robotics ramps up fight against cobot copycats

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Teradyne Robotics has had enough compliments for one year. Teradyne Robotics, the parent company of cobot arm maker Universal Robots, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against a German subsidiary of Chinese robotics company JAKA.

The case alleges that JAKA infringed patents covering both hardware and software used in Universal Robots’ collaborative robots. The lawsuit is Teradyne Robotics’ second major case involving a Chinese robotics company in Europe this year. In February 2026, the company sued Elite Robots’ German subsidiary over alleged copyright infringement. In April, the Regional Court of Hamburg issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting Elite Robots Germany from offering the disputed software and products containing it in Germany. The case is still ongoing. The JAKA case is different. “This is a patent case where the other one was about copyright,” David Brandt, vice president of research and development and chief technology officer at Universal Robots, told The Robot Report. “It’s multiple patents this time, and they cover both significant hardware and software aspects of our products.” Teradyne spots cobot similarities According to Brandt, Teradyne Robotics became interested in JAKA‘s products after noticing similarities between the two companies’ force- and power-limited robot arms. “Our robots and the robots of JAKA look quite alike,” Brandt said. “We then chose to acquire one of the robots and take a deeper look at it. Then it became quite obvious that there’s possible patent infringement in this.” Teradyne Robotics said the lawsuit involves a range of JAKA collaborative robots marketed in the European Union. The company filed the case with the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Local Division in Copenhagen because alleged acts of infringement occurred in Denmark and other EU member states. EU ruling has broad implications A ruling from the UPC could have broad geographic implications. According to Teradyne Robotics, a ruling could take effect across 17 of the 18 EU member states participating in the UPC, as well as in certain countries outside the UPC Agreement, including the U.K. and Spain.