April 26, 2017, State Intellectual Property Office Patent Reexamination Board published the Top 10 Patent Reexamination & Invalidation Cases in 2016, which were selected for the social attention received, the guiding significance in application of examination standard, and the clarity of the decision reasoning. The invalidation case of No. ZL 20132015657 6.8 “carrier device” patent in the name of Shenzhen DJI, which is represented by Unitalen, is selected in this Top 10 list. 

Case Summary

Shenzhen Zero UAV Tech. Co., LTD filed a petition to invalidate Chinese utility model patent No. ZL201320156576.8 owned by Shenzhen Da-Jiang Innovative Technology Co., Ltd (DJI). This case concerns the emerging aerial technology of unmanned aerial vehicles, with two parties both holding certain market positions in this field. The patent mainly involves the improvement of data and power line of the aerial photography system for unmanned aerial aircrafts. The Patent Reexamination Board, after hearing, made the decision No. 30205 to maintain the validity of the patent involved.

Highlight of the Case

The examination decision explains how to determine the technical content from the view of technical personnel in the field. The technical personnel in the field are those aware of the prior art in the technical field prior to the date of application, capable of acquiring knowledge of the prior art in the technical field and conducting conventional experiments. In determination of whether the disclosure of the specifications is sufficient, whether the claim can be supported by the specifications, whether the scope of protection of the claim is clear, and whether the solution to be protected by the claim can solve technical problems, the evaluation shall be based on the knowledge and capability of the technical staff in the technical field. If a technical staff in the technical field can implement the technical solution of the patent based on the disclosed content of the specification, the specification shall be deemed as having satisfied the requirement of full disclosure.

In determining whether the claim is supported by the specification, the entire contents of the specification should be considered; if a technical staff in the technical field concerned can make reasonable prediction of all the equivalent alternatives or obvious variations of the embodiments given by the specifications, the patentee should be allowed to cover all of its equivalent or obvious variations into the scope of protection

About DJI

Established in 2006, Shenzhen DJI-Innovations (“DJI”) is a global leader in R&D and manufactory of drones control system and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) solutions. From the earliest commercial flight control systems, ACE series helicopters control systems, multi-rotors flight control systems, spreading wings series S1000 & s900, to all-in-one multi-rotors Phantom series and the handheld 3-Axis camera gimbal Robin series, DJI has filled numerous technology blanks both domestically and internationally and became the leading player in the field, with market share up to 70%.