Patent Liability Analysis for UAV Technology: Embedding Location Data and Image Transmission

Purdue Airbus Patent Liability Analysis Jigar Gandhi - John-Taylor Smith - Chandler Wall - Eric Zarowny

Results of Patent and Product Search • United States Patent US7254249 • Embedding location data in video

Analysis of Patent Liability • Doctrine of Equivalents • Actual GPS data encoded into images. • Differences • We only encode live images for while the patent specifically mentions mapping stored into a map. • Patent encodes data into images using pseudo-random noise functions, i.e. not human readable form

Results of Patent and Product Search • United States Application US20090015674 • Optical Imaging System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Analysis of Patent Liability • Literal Infringement • UART communication between ground station and UAV’s processor • Doctrine of Equivalents • Image capture and transmission to ground station • Differences • Patent encoding done by separate encoder • Patent uses analog NTSC while we are using digital JPEG • Patent ground station can only control camera • Patent uses array of cameras

Results of Patent and Product Search • United States Application US20070244608 • Ground control station for UAV

Analysis of Patent Liability • Potential Literal Infringement • Telemetry from UAV • Doctrine of Equivalents • Control Methods • Differences • Patent needs a TV tuner card to view analog NTSC data • Patent does not embed telemetry data into image data • Patent only allows manual control, not updating the automated flight path

Patent Liability Analysis for UAV Technology: Embedding Location Data and Image Transmission