IBM and Instacart, the leading North American online grocery site, announced today that Instacart has secured over 250 patents from IBM. Furthermore, IBM and Instacart have entered into a cross-license mutual patent. The agreement allows Instacart to continue to strengthen its own portfolio of patents, and the license grants Instacart the right to use IBM patents to expand its business in the future. There was no disclosure of financial terms.
“IBM has had a long standing commitment to innovation and the sharing of our patented inventions within the industry, especially high-growth technology companies like Instacart that are establishing innovative solutions for critically needed food delivery during these challenging times. We look forward to a long term innovation partnership with Instacart,” said William LaFontaine, General Manager of Intellectual Property for IBM.
“We’re pleased to have an innovation partnership with IBM. This acquisition of patents from IBM and licensing agreement provides us with stronger intellectual property protection and gives us even more freedom to innovate for all the customers, shoppers and retailers who rely on our platform,” said Edison Lin, Intellectual Property Counsel at Instacart.
Founded in 2012 Instacart has been on a constant and steady growth and has recently expanded partnerships with merchants such as Costco, Bestbuy, Ahold Delhaize. This agreement with IBM will serve Instacart well as consumer buying channels have shift and excellerated to digital channels due to covid-19
