Boston Dynamics Sues Robotics Firm Over Uncanny Breeds Of Mechanical Dogs
Boston Dynamics’ Spot (left) VS Ghost Robotics’ robot dog (right). Images via 230696544 © Antonello Marangi | Dreamstime.com and Ghost Robotics
How much is that doggy in the window? If it’s a robot, it’s going to be worth a pretty penny.
You may be familiar with Spot, the robot dog by Boston Dynamics designed for industrial purposes such as inspecting remote areas and recording data. Since its unveiling in 2017, Spot has been joined by other mechanical canines in the industry, such as the ones by Ghost Robotics.
Boston Dynamics has been adamant that its quadrupeds not be weaponized. Ghost Robotics’ dogs, on the other hand, can be trained to handle military activities, and have been tasked to patrol the US border as well as assigned by the US Space Force to monitor the Cape Canaveral Space Force station. Notably, the autonomous Ghost robots gained notoriety after one of them was photographed with a sniper rifle on its back.
Ethical differences aside, the Massachusetts-based firm—now owned by Hyundai—is suing Ghost Robotics for supposedly violating seven of its patents in the “dog”-style Spirit 40 and Vision 60 quadrupeds, including technologies for climbing stairs and self-righting, Bloomberg Law reports. Doggone it.
Boston Dynamics noted in its complaint, filed in the Delaware court system on November 11, that it had sent two cease-and-desist notices to its competitor back in July 2020 to stop marketing the Ghost canines. This meant that Ghost was aware of Boston Dynamics’ products, the plaintiff claimed.
In a statement sent to tech publications like Engadget and TechCrunch, Boston Dynamics stresses that it “welcome[s] competition in the emerging mobile robotics market,” but it expects others to respect its intellectual property rights, and will not hesitate to take action when those rights are in breach.
The Hyundai-owned company is thus seeking unspecified damages from Ghost Robotics.
Can you spot the Spot in Ghost? Is Ghost the ghost of Spot? The court will be the judge of that.
[via Bloomberg Law, Engadget, TechCrunch, images via various sources]
