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DJI accused of copyright infringement in the US… by a Chinese-owned company
Autel Robotics asks US trade commission to exclude DJI products from US market
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
DJI, the world’s biggest civilian drone maker, could potentially be banned from selling some of its products in the US after being accused of copyright infringement by drone maker Autel Robotics.
But it turns out the company trying to bar DJI from the US isn’t a native American company -- it’s a branch of a company from China.
Autel Robotics USA LLC, who says it designs, manufactures and sells drones in the US, filed a complaint to the US International Trade Commission. It asked for a ban on imports of DJI drones, including the Mavic series, Spark, Phantom series and Inspire series.
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While this looks like another trade spat between the US and China at first sight, people are pointing out that Autel Robotics USA LLC is actually the US branch of Shenzhen-headquartered Autel Intelligent Technology, according to Autel’s own Chinese website, Chinese media reports and China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
Hands on with the Mavic 2 Pro
It appears that Autel does not sell drones in China: There’s no Autel product on sale either on its Chinese website or on ecommerce platforms, but it claims to be “one of the most popular brands of ready-to-fly UAVs in the US”.
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