The company that invented the cobot is now defending it in court — across 17 countries at once

On 27 August 2026 Teradyne Robotics A/S filed a patent infringement case at the Unified Patent Court in Copenhagen against the German subsidiary of the Chinese manufacturer JAKA. The patents at issue are both software and hardware, and belong to the business unit that created this market: Universal Robots of Odense, whose UR5 established the collaborative robot as a product category in 2008. The venue is the point. The Unified Patent Court is a single court whose rulings take effect in 17 of the 18 EU member states that take part in it. A patent dispute that would once have been fought country by country can now settle the European availability of a whole product line in one judgment. Teradyne says the case covers a broad range of JAKA cobot models sold in the EU. It is the company's second intellectual property action in Europe this year. The earlier one ran in Germany against a subsidiary of Elite Robots and concerned copyright in Universal Robots' own software; the German court issued an injunction in Teradyne's favour. JAKA rejects the claim. The company says its technology comes from years of its own research, that it holds more than 300 granted patents worldwide, and that it commissioned two independent freedom-to-operate analyses before entering the European market. Why this matters beyond two company names: collaborative arms from Chinese manufacturers now undercut European ones sharply on price, and the incumbent's answer is being tested in a court whose reach is continental rather than national. No ruling has been issued, and nothing here is a finding against JAKA — the case has only been filed.