Cork firm Everseen accuses US giant Walmart of stealing its technology

Firm claims Walmart grew unhappy having to rely on its technology and used trade secrets to develop its own version

Walmart said it takes the intellectual property rights of others seriously. 'We will respond in court as appropriate.'

A US court has granted permission to Cork technology company Everseen to file documents under seal in its lawsuit against supermarket giant Walmart that accuses the retail giant of stealing its technology.

Headquartered in Blackpool, Everseen develops software and artificial intelligence to monitor self-checkouts in supermarkets, detecting when items are not scanned correctly.

The company began working with Walmart in 2005, installing its technology in stores throughout the US and said it had helped the company save significant money by reducing thefts and shrinkage.

However, in court documents filed recently, Everseen claims Walmart grew unhappy having to rely on its technology and used trade secrets and confidential information to develop what they say is a Walmart copy of Everseen’s technology.

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue and is also the world's largest private employer, with 2.2m workers. In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the supermarket giant said: “We take the intellectual property rights of others seriously. We will respond in court as appropriate.”

A judge in the US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, where Walmart's headquarters are based, has agreed to Everseeen's request to file supporting documents under seal. However, a redacted form of Everseen's complaint is on public record.

"Everseen had an unparalleled solution that identified and prevented many types of events that lead to shrinkage, and it had the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, as a customer," the complaint states. "It was growing quickly and was in prime position to dominate a market that will soon be worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year."

Everseen, which was founded in 2008 by Cork man Alan O'Herlihy, said they explained their technology to Walmart over the course of their multi-year relationship. "Once it started using Everseen’s technology as a guide, it took Walmart an unrealistically short period of time to get the Walmart Derivative Technology ready," the complaint states.

Everseen now says Walmart has begun to offer its technology to other retailers around the world and has begun competing with Everseen for business.

Alan O'Herlihy, CEO of Everseen, which is headquartered in Blackpool, Cork. Picture: Denis Minihane

"Everseen faces competition in the form of its own technology, misappropriated and re-branded by the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. This competition is real and has already begun," the Cork tech firm said. 

"The risks to Everseen are two-fold: it might lose out on customer contracts it would have otherwise won; and in cases where Everseen is awarded a customer contract, the competition from Walmart will have likely driven the contract price.

"Before Walmart stole its technology, Everseen was in position to win many of the major retail contracts for which it was competing around the world," the complaint states. 

A spokesperson for Everseen said they would not be commenting as the matter is in litigation.

In an interview with this newspaper last month, CEO Alan O'Herlihy said that at the beginning of 2020, Everseen was working with six of the top-10 global retailers but has since grown to 14 of the top-25 retailers.

Everseen’s technology has helped some stores to drastically reduce the number of interactions staff have with customers. The technology observes millions of items and customers every day, reducing friction and delays.

“People were being stopped 25% of the time, but we managed to rescue that to 2%, in some cases,” Mr O’Herlihy said. “So that was a huge improvement, both for the client, but also letting customers through faster.” 

Everseen is now a dominant player in its sector. “We are the market leader, in terms of managing checkouts through computer vision. There is no one else scaled like us,” Mr O’Herlihy said.

Capitalising on its position, Everseen plans to open an office in Paris, targeting the major retailers in France and across Europe. Asia is also on the horizon, with plans for a significant presence there in 2021. Also this year, a thrift research centre is to be located in Barcelona.

Mr O’Herlihy is clear that while headquartered in Cork, Everseen is truly a global company. “We have 24 staff in Cork, likely growing to 40 this year. We have 180 in Romania, 50 in Belgrade, and will have 50 in the US.”