Amazon quiets patent claims over Alexa grocery voice-ordering
Print/DownloadPrompts on how to use Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant are seen in an Amazon ‘experience center’ in Vallejo, California, U.S., May 8, 2018. Picture taken on May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage – RC1EAAAD8350
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- Jury found Freshub failed to prove Amazon infringed patents
- Freshub said parties discussed collaboration as recently as 2019
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(Reuters) – A grocery-ordering feature of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant doesn’t infringe three patents owned by Israeli smart-kitchen technology company Freshub Inc, a West Texas jury has ruled.
The jury in U.S. District Judge Alan Albright’s patent-heavy Waco court rejected Freshub’s claims on Tuesday that the voice-shopping system on Amazon’s Alexa-enabled products infringes patents covering its technology for using natural voice commands to create lists and buy groceries.
Amazon declined to comment on the verdict, and its attorneys Saina Shamilov and Todd Gregorian of Fenwick & West didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Freshub and its attorneys Paul Andre and Lisa Kobialka of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Freshub sued Amazon and its Whole Foods unit in 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaint said Amazon had been aware of the patented technology since at least as early as 2010, and that the companies had discussed collaborating as recently as 2019.
Amazon argued, among other things, that Freshub failed to show Amazon’s technology met all of the elements of its patents.
While the jury found Amazon didn’t infringe, it rejected Amazon’s argument that the relevant parts of the patents were invalid.
The trial began June 14.
The case is Freshub Inc. v. Amazon.com Inc., U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 6:21-cv-00511.
For Freshub: Paul Andre and Lisa Kobialka of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
For Amazon: Saina Shamilov and Todd Gregorian of Fenwick & West
