Overview
(August 31, 2020, Washington, DC) – Steptoe's trial victory for Autel Robotics USA at the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has been upheld by the full commission. On August 25, the commission agreed with the initial determination from the chief administrative law judge in March that found that SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. and seven related entities (together known as "DJI") infringed an Autel patent when it imported unmanned aerial vehicles in the United States. The commission agreed that DJI, the world's largest maker of consumer drones, violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, by importing and selling drones that infringe US Patent No. 9, 260,184 belonging to Autel. The affected products include the Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro Platinum, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, Mavic Air, Phantom, and Spark, which together represent some of DJI's most popular drones sold in the United States.
The notice from the full commission comes after years of investigation into Autel's 2018 complaint that DJI and its corporations in Europe, California and China infringed three of Autel's patents related to drone technology.
The Steptoe team that secured this victory for Autel is led by Tim Bickham and includes lawyers John Abramic, Matt Bathon, Mike Flynn-O'Brien, Kate Johnson, Candice Kwark, Hui Shen, and Andrew Xue.
Read more about the ITC decision at Law360 (subscription required).
About Steptoe
In more than 100 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
