DJI vs Insta360: Patent War Erupts in the Drone Industry
Chinese drone and camera gimbal manufacturer DJI has sued Insta360 over alleged patent infringement, sparking a legal conflict between two major players in the imaging and drone industry.
According to DJI, Insta360’s parent company Arashi Vision has violated six types of patents related to drone flight control, image processing, and hardware design.
This renowned drone brand believes that all six patents belong to it, as they were developed by former DJI employees who joined Insta360 within less than a year after leaving.
Under Chinese patent law, this situation could grant rights to the former employer if the innovations are still related to previous work.
Nevertheless, according to Insta360 founder JK Liu, the patents were developed independently at his company.
Liu also highlighted one patent related to flight control, namely the “building dive” feature or FPV (first-person view) dive from a building that can be performed with just one button. Normally, this practice is done manually by experienced pilots.
According to Liu, the idea came directly from him and has not even been implemented due to flight regulation limitations.
What he did was only standard protection as commonly practised by various companies.
Furthermore, Liu stated that the company has not extensively used the disputed patents, as they are considered outdated.
“Most of the drone-related patents in question in this case were filed more than four years ago. Since then, our roadmap has changed significantly, and many patents have never been used,” Liu explained.
In the same post, Liu instead accused DJI of infringing on its patents, including those related to 360 cameras and action cameras.
Regarding DJI’s lawsuit, Liu affirmed that his side is awaiting the legal process, including respecting evidence gathering and investigation procedures.
At the same time, Insta360 is claimed to remain focused on launching 7-8 new products, including gimbal cameras, microphones, and drones.
Meanwhile, DJI has not provided further comments regarding its lawsuit, as gathered by KompasTekno from PetaPixel.