Teradyne sues JAKA Robotics over Universal Robots patents in Europe

JAKA Robotics asked last week where the Teradyne Robotics lawsuit was. Well, safe to say JAKA found it.

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) docket shows Teradyne filed its patent infringement case against JAKA Robotics GmbH on Aug. 24, 2026 – three days before Teradyne Robotics publicly announced the lawsuit.

Teradyne Robotics A/S, which owns Universal Robots, is accusing JAKA’s German subsidiary of infringing the patents. Teradyne previously said the case covers both hardware and software and a broad range of JAKA collaborative robots sold in Europe. Teradyne is the world’s leading developer of collaborative robot arms, having sold more than 100,000 robots since it was founded in 2005.

3 patents involved

The case, UPC-CFI-0003057/2026, was filed in the UPC’s Copenhagen Local Division and centers on three Universal Robots patents:

EP1996376 | Programmable Robot and User Interface: covers a programmable robot system and user interface, including a touchscreen that displays a 3D representation of the robot and allows operators to control its movements. Read patent

EP3045273 | Joint for a Robot: covers a robot-joint safety brake involving a solenoid, ratchet and annular friction member associated with the motor axle. Additional claims cover encoder arrangements and other joint features. Read patent

EP3530420 | Joint for a Robot: covers aspects of robot-joint construction, including output flanges and structures connecting adjacent joints. Read patent

All three patents have a March 2006 priority date and are assigned to Universal Robots. The public docket does not yet show which specific JAKA cobot models Teradyne Robotics alleges infringe which patent claims, but both companies offer a larger variety of options.

JAKA questioned the lawsuit

After Teradyne Robotics announced the case on Aug. 27, JAKA said it had not received official notification or communication from Teradyne Robotics. The company said it was seeking details about the allegations and pointed to two previous Freedom-to-Operate analyses that it said found no potential infringement involving Universal Robots.

In a Sept. 3 statement, JAKA said its legal advisers had verified that, as of Sept. 2, “no court proceedings” concerning the alleged infringement had been filed or opened against JAKA. It also said it had received no legal documents or court notification. The discrepancy could simply be the timeframe between filing a case with the court and formally notifying or serving the defendant.

The docket currently lists 128 documents, but the filings remain unavailable to the public.

This 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.

Editor’s note: James Davidson, chief AI officer at Teradyne Robotics, will speak at RoboBusiness 2026. The event takes place Oct. 20 and 21 in Santa Clara, Calif., and attract 1,500+ attends from the robotics development community. Register now to attend.