Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Boston Globe
December 19, 2007 By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff
In a dramatic reversal of fortune, iRobot Corp. has snatched away a $286 million military contract previously awarded to a rival, Robotic FX Inc., which iRobot accused of stealing trade secrets. IRobot will make up to 3,000 next-generation robots for the Army over the next five years.
The victory for iRobot of Burlington is the climax to a fierce battle with Robotic FX, a company started in Alsip, Ill., by Jameel Ahed, a former iRobot engineer.
The companies faced off last summer over a contract to build the new X-Bot - a confrontation Robotic FX initially won with a low bid of $279.9 million. In August, iRobot sued Robotic FX in federal courts in Alabama and Massachusetts, alleging patent infringement and theft of trade secrets. The clash in US District Court in Boston has resembled the plot of a paperback thriller, complete with claims of shredded documents, erased computer files, and planted evidence.
"It's a story of theft and betrayal and coverup, and coverup of the coverup," said Joseph Dyer, president of iRobot's government and industrial robot business unit.
IRobot hired detectives, who photographed Ahed disposing of materials he had obtained from iRobot before leaving the company. Ahed said that one of the items, a device used in making a robot's caterpillar treads, may have been planted by the detectives to incriminate him. Ahed conceded he had destroyed dozens of CD-ROM disks after his company was sued by iRobot, but insisted they contained nothing illegal.
Meanwhile, the Army filed papers urging US District Judge Nancy Gertner not to block Robotic FX from fulfilling the contract. The Army argued that it needed the new robots quickly, to save the lives of US soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In early November, Gertner issued a partial injunction against the company, saying that Ahed's behavior suggested "consciousness of guilt." Gertner said Robotic FX must stop making rubber caterpillar tracks for its robots because its methods could involve trade secrets stolen from iRobot.
Gertner also held that because iRobot's machines met the Army's standards, the military could transfer the contract.
Kristen Dooley, a spokeswoman for the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation Training and Instrumentation in Orlando, Fla., said it canceled the deal with Robotic FX and signed with iRobot because the injunction made it impossible for Robotic FX to fulfill the contract.
Calls to Robotic FX headquarters were not returned.
Dyer said iRobot can start building the new robots quickly. "We will deliver our first two robots in support of the contract in January, then we deliver five systems in February, then 30 in March," he said. IRobot then expects to produce 30 machines each month for the duration of the contract.
The X-Bot will be smaller and lighter than iRobot's current machines, which are mostly used by explosives-disposal teams to disarm or safely detonate roadside bombs and booby traps. The X-Bot is designed for surveillance and scouting missions.
An infantry team will be able to remotely guide the X-Bot through a building or other hazardous area, and use its TV cameras or other sensors to spot possible threats without exposing soldiers to danger.
Dyer said the X-Bot will be superseded in coming years by iRobot's Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, a smaller, lighter machine being codeveloped with the Army.
Dyer said the contract victory won't halt iRobot's legal attacks on Robotic FX. No trial date has been set in the Alabama patent case; the trade secrets case in Massachusetts may go to trial by April.
December 19, 2007 By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff
In a dramatic reversal of fortune, iRobot Corp. has snatched away a $286 million military contract previously awarded to a rival, Robotic FX Inc., which iRobot accused of stealing trade secrets. IRobot will make up to 3,000 next-generation robots for the Army over the next five years.
The victory for iRobot of Burlington is the climax to a fierce battle with Robotic FX, a company started in Alsip, Ill., by Jameel Ahed, a former iRobot engineer.
The companies faced off last summer over a contract to build the new X-Bot - a confrontation Robotic FX initially won with a low bid of $279.9 million. In August, iRobot sued Robotic FX in federal courts in Alabama and Massachusetts, alleging patent infringement and theft of trade secrets. The clash in US District Court in Boston has resembled the plot of a paperback thriller, complete with claims of shredded documents, erased computer files, and planted evidence.
"It's a story of theft and betrayal and coverup, and coverup of the coverup," said Joseph Dyer, president of iRobot's government and industrial robot business unit.
IRobot hired detectives, who photographed Ahed disposing of materials he had obtained from iRobot before leaving the company. Ahed said that one of the items, a device used in making a robot's caterpillar treads, may have been planted by the detectives to incriminate him. Ahed conceded he had destroyed dozens of CD-ROM disks after his company was sued by iRobot, but insisted they contained nothing illegal.
Meanwhile, the Army filed papers urging US District Judge Nancy Gertner not to block Robotic FX from fulfilling the contract. The Army argued that it needed the new robots quickly, to save the lives of US soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In early November, Gertner issued a partial injunction against the company, saying that Ahed's behavior suggested "consciousness of guilt." Gertner said Robotic FX must stop making rubber caterpillar tracks for its robots because its methods could involve trade secrets stolen from iRobot.
Gertner also held that because iRobot's machines met the Army's standards, the military could transfer the contract.
Kristen Dooley, a spokeswoman for the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation Training and Instrumentation in Orlando, Fla., said it canceled the deal with Robotic FX and signed with iRobot because the injunction made it impossible for Robotic FX to fulfill the contract.
Calls to Robotic FX headquarters were not returned.
Dyer said iRobot can start building the new robots quickly. "We will deliver our first two robots in support of the contract in January, then we deliver five systems in February, then 30 in March," he said. IRobot then expects to produce 30 machines each month for the duration of the contract.
The X-Bot will be smaller and lighter than iRobot's current machines, which are mostly used by explosives-disposal teams to disarm or safely detonate roadside bombs and booby traps. The X-Bot is designed for surveillance and scouting missions.
An infantry team will be able to remotely guide the X-Bot through a building or other hazardous area, and use its TV cameras or other sensors to spot possible threats without exposing soldiers to danger.
Dyer said the X-Bot will be superseded in coming years by iRobot's Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, a smaller, lighter machine being codeveloped with the Army.
Dyer said the contract victory won't halt iRobot's legal attacks on Robotic FX. No trial date has been set in the Alabama patent case; the trade secrets case in Massachusetts may go to trial by April.