Liu Jingkang, the founder of Shadow Stone Innovation, issued an article in response to DJI’s lawsuit against Shadow Stone. Liu Jingkang said that DJI’s request is that the ownership of patents generated by employees who leave the company within one year should belong to DJI. We carefully checked the patents applied by the employees involved during this period, and the existing evidence shows that they were all ideas and independent innovations generated within Shadow Stone.
Regarding the inventor's avoidance of accusations, Liu Jingkang said that many of our patents hide the inventors when applying domestically and disclose them during PCT. This is because we want to respect the inventors and try to delay the exposure of the list of technical personnel and be targeted by headhunters. Many of our patent applications also hide non-former DJI employees. If the motive is as DJI said, there is no need for us to apply for patents using the names of these inventors.
Liu Jingkang also mentioned that GoPro and DJI sued us, which fully understands the giants’ mentality of being robbed of the market. On the contrary, many functions and accessories of DJI panoramic cameras and thumb cameras have been reported as "copied"/"strikingly similar" by the media. However, we did not take the initiative to sue. As a small company, we have limited resources. Compared with legal proceedings, we prioritize investment in research and development, expand the market and cake through differentiation, and bring richer choices to consumers.
"In the case of DJI suing Shadow Stone, everyone can just wait for the court's normal evidence collection and investigation procedures. This kind of competition is very common among technology companies. Respect intellectual property rights, but at the same time respect facts, legal procedures and rulings. We are not afraid of any patent litigation and do not engage in existing competition. We will only use continuous innovation to expand the market and win a place. Weapons are not used unless necessary." Liu Jingkang said.
According to reports, DJI recently formally sued ShadowStone in the Intermediate People’s Court of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, involving 6 patent ownership disputes. Many former DJI core R&D personnel were accused of involvement. At present, the court has officially filed the case.
It is reported that this is the first time that DJI has filed a patent ownership dispute in China. DJI accuses Shadowstone Innovation of applying for patents that are mainly concentrated in key technical fields such as drone flight control, structural design, and image processing. DJI pointed out in the complaint that the patents involved were inventions made within one year after former employees left the company, and these inventions were closely related to the employees' work tasks when they were employed at DJI.
The media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that in the two patents involving drone flight control and structural design, Shadowstone Innovation recorded some of the inventors as "requesting that their names not be published" in the Chinese application text. However, in the corresponding international patent application, the real names of all inventors are listed, and those who chose not to publish their names are former core R&D personnel of DJI. During their employment, they were deeply involved in the technology development of key DJI drone projects and mastered the core technology system.
