Drone manufacturers DJI and Autel Robotics have finally settled out of court their years-long patent infringement disputes. Though the details of the settlement have not been revealed publicly, the case has been reportedly settled only days before a jury trial was set to begin.
Drone industry rivals, DJI and Autel, have been embroiled in a series of to-and-fro patent disputes since 2016.
On August 11, 2016, DJI alleged that Autel had copied the look and feel of DJI’s flagship Phantom series while designing the X-Star and X-Star Premium drones.
Seeking damages arising out of Autel’s infringement of US Patent Nos. 9,016,617, 9,284,049, 9,321,530, and D691,514, DJI claimed that Autel had hired a former engineer of DJI, Fazhan Chen, who had worked extensively on the research and development for DJI’s drones, including the Phantom 3. DJI further claimed that Autel had priced its X-Star products in a manner that undercut the pricing of DJI’s drones,…
