Universal Robots Owner Sues Chinese Rival JAKA Over Copycat Cobot Claims

Key points

• Teradyne Robotics filed a patent lawsuit against JAKA's German subsidiary in 2026, alleging it copied hardware and software from Universal Robots' collaborative robot arms.
• The case was filed with the Unified Patent Court in Copenhagen, and a ruling could apply across 17 EU member states plus the UK and Spain.
• This is Teradyne's second lawsuit against a Chinese robotics company in Europe in 2026, following an earlier copyright case against Elite Robots in February.
• Universal Robots has sold more than 100,000 collaborative robot arms and posted $100 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up 33 percent year-on-year.
• Teradyne says its primary goal is not damages but forcing JAKA to stop selling the disputed products.

Teradyne Robotics, the American parent company of robot arm maker Universal Robots, has sued the German arm of Chinese firm JAKA, claiming JAKA's factory robots copy patented technology that Universal Robots spent years developing. The case was filed with the Unified Patent Court, a court that handles patent disputes across most of the European Union, at its Local Division in Copenhagen.

What exactly did Universal Robots allege?

Teradyne says JAKA infringed multiple patents covering both the physical design and the software inside Universal Robots' collaborative robots, or cobots for short. A cobot is a robot arm built to work safely alongside human workers on a factory floor, rather than being locked behind a safety cage.

The company first grew suspicious after engineers noticed the two firms' robot arms looked strikingly alike. "Our robots and the robots of JAKA look quite alike," Universal Robots' chief technology officer David Brandt told The Robot Report. Teradyne then bought a JAKA unit, took it apart, and concluded there was likely patent infringement.

This is Teradyne's second major legal action against a Chinese robotics company in Europe in 2026. In February it sued Elite Robots' German subsidiary over copyright infringement. A Hamburg court issued a preliminary injunction against Elite Robots in April, banning it from selling the disputed software in Germany. That case is still ongoing.

How wide could the impact be?

Potentially very wide. A ruling from the Unified Patent Court would automatically apply across 17 of the 18 EU member states that have signed up to the system, and could also reach the UK and Spain.

Teradyne's group president Jean-Pierre Hathout said the company "will enforce its patents and intellectual property rights against what we consider to be illegal and unfair copying, across both hardware and software."

Brandt was careful to frame the dispute around principles rather than nationality. "To us, it's not about China," he said. "It's about other companies copying stuff that we designed, whether they're Chinese or not."

Should factory workers or businesses using these robots care?

Possibly yes, on safety grounds. Universal Robots helped write the book on making robot arms safe enough to work next to people. Brandt argued that cheaper copies which skip the same safety engineering could injure workers, and that a single serious incident could cause regulators to restrict all cobots, including the genuine article.

"If they are not as safe as they should be, and in the worst-case scenario lead to somebody getting seriously hurt," he said, "there's a risk that this could reflect badly on the entire industry."

For businesses already running Universal Robots cobots, nothing changes immediately. The legal fight is between the two companies, and Teradyne says its main goal is to get JAKA to stop selling the disputed products in Europe, not to collect a large damages cheque.

How big is this market?

Universal Robots has shipped more than 100,000 cobot arms and built a large ecosystem of software and add-on accessories around them over the past decade. Teradyne Robotics posted $100 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up from $75 million in the same quarter of 2025, marking five straight quarters of growth.

JAKA's current lineup spans dozens of models across six product families, with payloads ranging from 3 kilograms up to 30 kilograms. The company did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

Common questions

What is a collaborative robot and how is it different from a regular factory robot?

A collaborative robot, or cobot, is a robot arm designed to work safely alongside people without a protective cage around it. It uses sensors and software to detect when a human is nearby and slow down or stop before causing harm.

What happens if Teradyne wins the case?

A ruling in Teradyne's favour could ban JAKA from selling the disputed robot models across most of the European Union and in the UK and Spain. JAKA could also face financial penalties, though Teradyne has said stopping the sales is the priority.

Does this affect businesses that already bought JAKA robots?

The lawsuit targets future sales in Europe, not products already in use. Businesses with JAKA robots already on their factory floors are not directly affected by the court case.