MINNEAPOLIS MN (PRWEB) December 15, 2017 -- QFO Labs (http://www.QFOlabs.com), a drone technology licensing company, announced today an additional favorable development in defense of its patent rights. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a third “Decision Not to Institute an IPR trial” in a third round of Inter Partes Review (IPR) challenges launched by France-based Parrot SA in May 2017 against QFO’s tilt-to-fly quadcopter patents. (IPR2017-01400). On November 1, 2017, QFO announced in a news release that the USPTO had dismissed a second round of IPR challenges launched by Parrot.
“We’re thankful for this latest decision by the USPTO, which adds to our confidence that we will prevail in defending our tilt-to-fly patents,” said Brad Pedersen, QFO Labs co-inventor and CEO. “The judges expressly rejected the arguments Parrot was making against the unique aspects of our tilt-to-fly patents that relate to a tilt-based remote controller that senses a controller gravitational reference.”
QFO Labs was an early pioneer in quadcopter/drone technology, inventing its tilt-to-fly patents more than fifteen years ago, three years before other tilt-based gaming controllers like the Nintendo Wii-mote® were introduced. Brookstone, a U.S.-based multi-store retailer and ecommerce site, sold both Parrot and QFO quadcopter products in 2013 and 2014 prior to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The second and third round of IPR petitions by Parrot were part of a larger patent battle it initiated against QFO after Brookstone emerged from the bankruptcy and decided to carry only Parrot-branded tilt-to-fly quadcopter products.
More about QFO Labs’ battle to protect its intellectual property rights can be found in this article in the Minneapolis StarTribune (published November 6, 2017): “QFO is locked in a drone battle with Parrot of France.”
A final decision from the USPTO on Parrot’s first round of IPR challenges to the QFO tilt-to-fly patents is expected by February 2018.
About QFO Labs, Inc.
Based in Minneapolis, QFO Labs is a drone technology licensing company that began as a startup more than 15 years ago. Its cofounders started developing unique, patented technology relating to drones in the early 2000s. The latest iteration of the company was founded in 2011 with an initial focus on creating new high-tech consumer drone products, based on a library of U.S. patents and patent applications. It launched its “quadcopter” drone product after a Kickstarter project in 2012, and later marketed the product successfully through a nationwide retail and ecommerce partner in 2013 and 2014. Since then, the company shifted its focus to licensing its popular “tilt-to-fly” features and related drone and gaming technologies to other companies. For more information, please visit http://www.QFOlabs.com.
Brad Pedersen, QFO Labs, Inc., http://www.qfolabs.com, +1 612-399-6266, bpedersen@qfolabs.com
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