Walmart awarded new trial in grocery freshness patent case

Walmart trial overview: 

• Who: Walmart will receive a new trial in a lawsuit it faced from Zest Labs Inc. 
• Why: In a filing for attorneys’ fees after the previous trial, Walmart discovered that Zest received notice that Walmart would file a patent for its grocery freshness technology before that patent application was published.
• Where: The Walmart verdict and new Walmart trial take place in federal court in Arkansas.

Walmart will receive a new trial in a lawsuit it faced from Zest Labs Inc. over grocery freshness technology in its stores.

A federal jury previously awarded Zest $115 million in damages after reaching a verdict that Walmart had received a demonstration of startup Zest’s technology and then used it in Walmart’s Eden system, according to Law360.

The Eden system “involves attaching tracking devices to produce as it travels between farms, distribution centers and stores, and using that data to predict the exact day the food will spoil,” Law360 reported, saying the system projects to save Walmart $15 million during the next decade.

After the Walmart grocery trial, however, Zest’s attorneys filed a request for $46 million in fees and within that filing Walmart discovered that Zest had received notice that Walmart planned to file a patent for its grocery freshness technology prior to that patent application being published.

New evidence likely would have resulted in different verdict, judge wrote

U.S. District Judge James M. Moody found that newly discovered evidence to be important to the previously completed Walmart grocery trial.

“Regardless of the motive or lack thereof, the Court finds that Zest’s failure to disclose that it had notice of Walmart’s patent application before it was published was material and not merely cumulative or impeaching,” Moody wrote about the Walmart verdict. “After reviewing the post-trial discovery and having presided over the trial, the court finds that this evidence would probably produce a different result at trial.”

Moody agreed to a new Walmart trial while taking under advisement Walmart’s request for sanctions and attorneys’ fees. Walmart also was granted its motions to unseal the motion to dismiss and accompanying brief, writing that the documents “do not include privileged material and there is no compelling reason to override the public’s right to access the documents.”

Walmart misclassified delivery drivers who provide a delivery service for the company through its Spark Driver program as independent contractors, when, in reality, they should be classified as employees, a recent class action lawsuit alleges. 

Have you witnessed Walmart’s grocery freshness technology in action? Let us know in the comments.

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