Defendant
2 cases as defendant.
YI Technology — company profile
YI Technologies, Inc. (also known as YI Technology; 小蚁科技 / "Xiaoyi" in mainland China; formerly Shanghai Xiaoyi Technology Co., Ltd.) is a privately held Chinese consumer-electronics maker founded in 2014 and headquartered in Shanghai's Pudong New District, with additional US offices historically listed in Bellevue, WA and Sunnyvale, CA. It is venture-backed and not publicly traded; PitchBook lists Xiaomi Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners, 5Y Capital, and i-Qu & Co as minority investors and roughly $101M raised across rounds through a 2018 Series D. Size estimates vary by source: PitchBook reports about 235 employees, while trade press has cited figures near 500. Hong Kong arbitration filings indicate the Chinese operating entity was later renamed Yunyi Zhilian (Shanghai) Information Technology Co., Ltd. The company was initially backed and branded by Xiaomi and split from it in October 2016.
YI designs and sells imaging and computer-vision hardware: action cameras (YI 4K, YI Lite), home and outdoor security cameras (YI Home, YI Dome, YI Outdoor), dash cameras, mirrorless cameras (YI M1), and VR cameras (YI Horizon VR180, made with Google), plus the "Kami" smart-home sub-brand launched in 2018. It also offers companion mobile apps and cloud services (YI Home / Kami Home apps, KamiCloud). PitchBook notes consumer and business vision products including smart retail and face-capture devices.
Litigation posture: YI appears in the tracked data solely as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases, 2 defendant cases), the profile of an operating company being sued rather than a patent assertion entity. Both tracked matters are the same dispute, NEC Corporation v. YI Technologies, Inc., filed September 3, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (2:24-cv-00722, Marshall Division), a venue favored by plaintiffs.
NEC asserts six patents covering object detection, video surveillance, mobile monitoring, domain-adversarial learning/knowledge distillation, event-related data monitoring, and data collection. Accused products include the YI Pro 2, YI Home 3 Camera, YI Outdoor Camera, Kami Doorbell Camera, and Kami Outdoor Security Camera, along with their apps and cloud services. Reported relief sought includes injunctive relief and enhanced damages; the merits have not been adjudicated in the tracked data.
NEC sued YI Technologies asserting US 11,537,814 against YI/Kami-brand surveillance cameras and related applications and services. The case remains active with no final judgment or termination identified.
Stanford NPE Litigation Database lists this case as asserting U.S. Patent No. 10,970,995. NEC Corporation sued YI Technologies, Inc. in E.D. Tex.; accused products include YI/Kami smart cameras and related apps/cloud services. No outcome reported as of late 2024.