According to court documents iRobot said that "Shark is not even shy about being a copycat... and claims that the Shark IQ Robot offers the same iRobot technology at 'half the price of iRobot i7+'".

The company that unveiled the Roomba robotic vacuum in the early 2000s launched a product last year that takes house cleaning to a new level: It maps your home, schedules sweeps through each room, empties the dust bin itself and even knows where to resume cleaning after has returned to its base for a recharge.

After being recognized by Time magazine for one of 2018's inventions of the year, iRobot Corp. says it's no accident that rival SharkNinja Operating came out with a similar device a year later.

SharkNinja, a unit of closely held EP Midco filed a pre-emptive lawsuit in federal court in Delaware, asking the court to declare that the Shark IQ doesn't infringe six patents cited in iRobot's complaint, nor five others. iRobot had previously demanded that the Shark IQ be pulled off store shelves.