iRobot proposes injunction in xBot court case versus Robotic FX; Army refuses to negotiate

iRobot has proposed an order for Judge Nancy Gertner that would allow her to rule in iRobot's favor but leave open the possibility of allowing the Negotiator deal to go forward if the military can convince her that preventing Robotic FX from selling the Negotiator would be contrary to the public interest. The order is at this link.

iRobot accompanies the proposed order with a letter to the judge explaining that it had sought to engage the Army in talks on an interim solution while the court case continued that would include having both iRobot and Robotic FX jointly fill orders for the xBot competition until the court case is resolved. (How would that work?) The government declined to participate in such a negotiation, only saying that it would comment on any proposals.

Lawyers for Robotic FX CEO Jameel Ahed (shown at his favorite Dumpster), meanwhile, sent their own letter, charging that any injunction is not warranted, but if the judge decided to grant one, iRobot's proposed injunction should be rejected as overly broad and should be crafted in such a way as to allow Robotic FX to continue to sell Negotiators and meet the xBot contract terms. (Natch!) The lawyers charge that iRobot has failed to specifically say which trade secrets have been used, etc.

iRobot, meanwhile, in its letter, argued that not only had it presented evidence of misappropriations of trade secrets, but that it could very well find additional misuse of trade secrets in further discovery before a full-blown trial and noted the massive destruction of hundreds of gigabytes of evidence by a certain Jameel Ahed. iRobot also argues that the public interest is not merely served by the 2 percent difference in the two companies' bids but in preserving private property rights and in working with honest, ethical contractors.

(Big thanks, simpsonsez!)