DJI and Insta360 file patent lawsuits over pocket camera rivalry

DJI and Insta360 have turned their pocket-camera rivalry into a patent fight, and the timing is hard to miss. DJI filed two lawsuits against Insta360 on June 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, just as Insta360 launched the Luna Ultra and DJI was building momentum around the Osmo Pocket 4P. Two days later, Insta360 fired back with two countersuits in Texas, pushing the dispute beyond product launches and into the technology that makes these little cameras so appealing in the first place.

The complaints land in a category that is unusually exposed because the two companies overlap so directly. DJI’s claims reportedly target the Luna Ultra and its accessories, with allegations tied to design and utility patents covering subject tracking, follow and lock gimbal modes, and physical design. Insta360’s response says DJI infringed five utility patents covering stabilization, directional control, telemetry overlays, and panoramic video stabilization, and it says those technologies show up across the Osmo Pocket series, Ronin and RS gimbals, Osmo Mobile, and Osmo 360 cameras.

That is the part creators should watch, because the impact is not limited to a courtroom filing. If either side has to redesign, the most exposed products are the compact, stabilized shooters that define this segment: pocket cameras, smartphone gimbals, and creator-friendly handheld rigs. Subject tracking that feels seamless today could be pared back or rewritten in later firmware. Follow and lock modes could come back with different behavior. Accessory kits built around a specific body shape or mount could get scrambled if a design has to change, and that kind of rethink usually shows up later as a higher price or a delayed refresh.

The legal escalation came after a busy launch cycle that made the rivalry even sharper. Insta360 announced the Luna Ultra on June 10 as a Leica co-engineered flagship gimbal camera built around professional imaging, 3-axis stabilization, and portable creative tools. DJI unveiled the Osmo Pocket 4P at Cannes, France, on May 14, framing it as a new step in handheld cinematic imaging. With both brands pressing deeper into the same creator segment, the lawsuits read less like abstract patent sparring and more like a fight over which features survive into the next generation.

There is also some useful context here for anyone tracking the market rather than just the headlines. In February, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in Insta360’s favor in its dispute with GoPro, letting Insta360 continue importing and selling its existing lineup in the United States. DJI has long argued that it pioneered the gimbal camera category in 2015 and one of the first pocket-sized gimbal cameras in 2018, which is exactly why control of this space matters. The pocket-camera race was already moving fast; now the next round may be shaped as much by patent claims as by sensor upgrades and new lenses.