Autel Robotics wins patent suit over DJI – Calls for stop of sale and import of most DJI drones
May 18, 2020
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Autel Robotics USA has won a pretty major victory over competing drone manufacturer DJI. The suit claimed that many of DJI’s consumer drones have been imported into the US and sold while infringing on Autel’s US Patent No. 9, 260,184. The international law firm, Steptoe, secured the win on March 2nd.
According to the infringement suit, DJI violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which essentially makes illegal any imports found to be infringing on a US Patent, and other unfair methods of competition.
According to DPReview, the ITC’s chief administrative law judge suggested banning the import of a number of DJI products into the USA including the Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro Platinum, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, Mavic Air and DJI Spark.
The recently released DJI Mavic Air 2 was not mentioned in the suit, although that’s not surprising given that the Mavic Air 2 was announced almost 2 months after the ruling was handed down. The Mavic Mini, announced last October, also wasn’t included in the list.
The judge also recommended a cease and desist order. As well as preventing the import of more drones, this would prohibit sales of those affected DJI drones that are already within the USA, too. If this happens, then sales of new DJI drones in the USA could end as soon as July.
If you’ve been on the fence, now might be a good time to buy before existing stocks are sold out and can no longer be replenished. I can also see prices potentially increase in the used market, too, if the availability of new DJI drones declines.
Given the market share DJI has, I think it’s doubtful that they would let all their stocks be pulled from US shelves, at least not for very long. Chances are, they’ll likely come to an agreement with Autel whereby DJI effectively licenses the patent and all is well again. This sort of resolution happens quite often once things get this far.
Of course, DJI may also choose to appeal the decision, too, with a hope to overturn it.
[via DPReview]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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23 responses to “Autel Robotics wins patent suit over DJI – Calls for stop of sale and import of most DJI drones”
No loss. It’s not like just anybody can fly one anymore without license or a legal location. Governments have been asinine and draconian on drones. Fuck ’em all.
I don’t have a problem with being licensed or, depending on the implementation (which isn’t final) legal location restrictions or ID. ‘No loss’ is a ridiculous tantrum. Drones are a substantial industry that employ a lot of people providing services using them.
You should take your complaints to the governments, and not the businesses. Though DJI is a Chinese company so I wouldn’t trust them anyways.
I really wonder how the life of those never made in chinas look like. By posting here, he/she used China made computer or cellphone already yet whining about not trusting them. What a thug life lmao.
I don’t trust China, and here I am doing the same thing. The thing is that we often don’t have a choice in that matter as tech has been extracted out to China from the United States, and we really ought to bring manufacturing back, or at least give it to an ally of the US.
I might be wrong, but looking at the patent, it’s about how the props attach to the drone body, not about folding arms.
So, will dji drone still import to Canada. B.c has his own shipping dock. Why need to relie shipping to u.s, not Canada.
China has given plenty of reasons for the US to ban/prosecute patent infringement. They moved undetected for many years stealing trade and military secrets, known as APT1 until discovered by security firm Mandiant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLA_Unit_61398
No China’s awful fascist government has given the United States and her allies plenty of reasons to ban Chinese products. The sooner China’s government embraces the Western ideas of individual rights, personal freedom, and transparency, the sooner they’d be welcome to sit at the adults table, so to speak. As of now, they’re a tinpot dictatorship, and deserve the international derision they’ve received.
Actually, the only one receiving international derision is the USofA. But you, probably, can’t comprehend that, because of that “i’m the greatest, smartest, tallest, blondest, etc.” mentality.
Now that’s what people call racism. I’m mixed race, fyi.
I don’t care are you mixed race or pure race. If the only thing you got from my comment is that i’m racist, then you just proved that everything i’ve said is true.
LOL just using the words “pure race” in juxtaposition to “mixed race” is a bit cringey, dontcha know.
So? I’m not the one who started playing the “racist” and “mixed race” card.
You suggested that the only reason I think that way is because I’m a white, blonde, American. That’s prejudice and racism.
Learn to read, dude. I’ve said that you can’t comprehend that actually the USA is the country receiving international derision, not China, and that you can’t comprehend that because of the “i’m the greatest, smartest, tallest, blondest, etc.” mentality.
Where did you see that i’ve said that it’s because you’re white, blond, American? If i point out that you are not able to understand the English language, does that also makes me a racist?
Whole world knows about China. They literally copy everything.
The patent has to do with the locking mechanism for the blade, not the folding arms. You would think the author of the article would have bothered to read his own links. DJI used screw on blades on some of their drones. That is why they were not included. If this holds up on appeal, they can go back to that system or slightly modify their clip on blades.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9260184B2/en
Good. Hope DJI loses for the shady practices they do day in and day out.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dd1d1e46052d1be63ca225a3bd6e9c3aadb15b989d315d95ccbb6ebb84c6634a.jpg
Run until they run out…
Great PR campaign from DJI to increase their sales.
Didn’t the US stole half of the German technology, starting with films for photography, up to rockets? Oh, sorry, they weren’t patented. Never mind then.
I find it really stupid, an American (Chinese parent company) suing Chinese company DJI for using an invention that was used many times before it was “patented” by said American/Chinese company!
Not sure what’s new in the Autel patent. The idea of one or more pairs of counter-rotating rotors to avoid imparting spin to the body (what the tail rotor is for in single-rotor helicopters) has been in use for many decades in the US military’s Chinook helicopter. And the idea that something that screws onto a rotating shaft should do so in the direction opposite that of the rotation is also a standard idea seen forever in many things (e.g. fans, wheel hub nuts). Screwing on in the normal clockwise direction is more common, but the counterclockwise direction is not unusual. Finally, putting a rotor on a long arm attached to the aircraft body is also used explicitly for some tail rotors.