Autel Robotics USA LLC

Autel Robotics USA LLC ("Autel Robotics") is the U.S. arm of the Autel Robotics drone business, headquartered in Bothell, Washington. The U.S. LLC was formed in Delaware in November 2015; the Autel Robotics drone brand dates to roughly 2014, when it was spun out of Shenzhen-based Autel Intelligent Technology Corp., Ltd. (Shanghai STAR Market: 688208), a vehicle-diagnostics and EV-charging company that remains an affiliated but separate entity. Autel Robotics USA is not itself publicly listed, and no audited revenue or headcount is public; third-party aggregators place employment between roughly 200 and 1,000.

Products / operations. Autel designs, markets and sells consumer and commercial unmanned aerial vehicles: multirotor and fixed-wing platforms, including the EVO series (EVO II, and later EVO Lite/Nano), the earlier X-Star line, the Kestrel fixed-wing, and Alpha series, along with camera and thermal-imaging payloads and companion flight-control software. Reported end markets include aerial imaging, public safety, inspection, surveying/mapping and agriculture. This is an operating hardware company, not an NPE.

Patent-litigation posture. The tracked database shows one appearance, all as a defendant (0 plaintiff, 0 other): Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. v. Autel Robotics USA LLC, D. Del., No. 1:22-cv-01411, filed 2022-10-26. Cedar Lane is a Canadian-domiciled patent assertion entity that acquired portfolios including Intellectual Ventures patents and asserted U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,473,527, 6,972,790 and 8,537,242 (image/AV data processing). The suit was voluntarily dismissed on 2022-11-02. The profile — one NPE suit, zero offensive filings — is that of an operating company targeted by an NPE; the case sat in D. Del., not a plaintiff-friendly Texas venue.

Notable context. Outside the tracked data, Autel has litigated as a plaintiff against rival SZ DJI Technology in D. Del. and S.D.N.Y. and before the ITC (Inv. No. 337-TA-1133, 2018), where it won a limited exclusion order on U.S. Pat. No. 9,260,184 that was later suspended pending PTAB invalidation; the dispute settled in 2021. Autel has also drawn U.S. regulatory scrutiny, including a 2023 congressional letter urging Entity List review and its later addition to the FCC's Covered List.

Sources: autelrobotics.com; USITC Pub. 5286; PacerMonitor docket 1:22-cv-01411; House Select Committee on the CCP letter (2023); DroneXL; Shanghai Stock Exchange (688208).