Last checked at 
(Adds German court's comments on AutoStore statement)
OSLO/LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Norwegian warehouse robot
maker AutoStore <AUTO.OL and British rival Ocado
sparred on Friday over legal proceedings in Germany in their
latest patent dispute.
The companies, both of which provide labour-saving storage
technology to the fast-growing online shopping industry, have
been locked in a series of battles https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-autostore-ocado-lawsuit-idUSKBN26M5VO
over intellectual property (IP) rights for years.
AutoStore shares initially rose 15% on Friday when the
company said a Munich court had halted proceedings brought by
Ocado to prevent the sale of one of AutoStore's robots in
Germany.
But Ocado hit back by saying the Norwegian company had given
a partial and misleading account of the proceedings and that the
case was still to be concluded. AutoStore's shares had swung to
a loss of 4.0% by 1405 GMT.
The Munich court told Reuters that while it shared
AutoStore's concerns, the Norwegian firm had not accurately
portrayed the court's views.
Specifically, a sentence in Autostore's statement that "The
court's view was that Ocado were trying to claim technology they
had not invented", was not correct, a spokesperson for the
Munich court said.
The topic of invention or non-invention was not part of
Thursday's hearing, the court spokesperson added.
AustoStore did not immediately respond to requests for
comment on the court's view.
Ocado said the case would resume at a later time.
"The infringement action against AutoStore continues but
must await confirmation of the validity of Ocado's Utility Model
right, which will be considered by a different court as is
standard in Germany," Ocado said.
Ocado's shares traded down 7.2% in London.
AutoStore last month suffered a legal setback https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/ocado-wins-patent-infringement-trial-itc-against-autostore-2021-12-14
in the United States in a lawsuit of its own against Ocado.
Another patent case between the two rivals is ongoing in
Britain.
AutoStore, whose biggest owner is Japan's SoftBank,
went public in October and its shares initially rose sharply.
They have since fallen, partly as a result of the U.S. legal
setback, and are down 51% from their November peak.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik in Oslo, James Davey in London and
Christina Amann in Berlin, additional reporting by Nora Buli in
Oslo
Editing by Jason Neely, Mark Potter, Kirsten Donovan)
