On June 26, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued the last of five Final Written Decisions in favor of Finnegan client DJI Technology, finding all claims unpatentable in five of Drone-Control LLC’s patents related to remote-controlled aircraft. The patents aimed to transform a user’s commands input via a remote control so that the aircraft followed directions based on the user’s commands from the perspective of the user, regardless of which direction the aircraft was facing. Drone-Control’s predecessor, Synergy Drone, filed a lawsuit in district court against DJI, alleging certain of DJI’s drones infringe the patents. DJI then challenged the patents in inter partes review at the PTAB, arguing that the patents were anticipated or obvious. The Board agreed with DJI and wrote, “We determine that petitioner has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the combination of [references cited by DJI] renders [the challenged claims] unpatentable as obvious.” Drone-Control also moved to amend the claims, but the PTAB denied their motions.
