A couple of days ago, Insta360 made its DJI Osmo Pocket 4P competitor official in the Luna Ultra, and now DJI is launching not one but two lawsuits against Insta360 alleging patent violations. The lawsuits were filed in the US, presumably because DJI feels like it has a better chance of winning over there.
In its first lawsuit, DJI accuses Insta360 of infringing its design patents by producing and selling the Luna series, which DJI says closely copies its own designs for the Osmo Pocket line. The resemblance is obvious from a mile away, but whether it’s enough to get DJI its coveted injunction, which would stop sales of the Insta360 Luna line in the US, remains to be seen.
DJI specifically mentions the “ornamental design” described in one of its patents covers the “elongated handheld body, neck connecting the body to the gimbal arm connection point, gimbal assembly and camera”, with the “module at the top, rotatable display and bezel, lower control section housing the scroll wheel and record button, side-mounted accessory slot, and the port opening at the base” being covered by another patent.
In the second lawsuit DJI cites four utility patents it has been granted, which it alleges that Insta360 has violated. One of these describes “a control device for a gimbal allowing mode switching between follow and locked modes via a single control”, another is about “a handheld gimbal with integrated subject tracking and real-time display, eliminating the need for a separate app”, the third is about “a gimbal control method where the device’s own image of the target drives the gimbal’s motor commands”, and the fourth one covers “a self-contained system for tracking a subject and displaying the image on the gimbal’s screen”.
Earlier this year, DJI sued Insta360 in China, alleging that it poached former DJI employees and used stolen research and development to file drone-related patents.