The FCC Is Moving to Pull Approvals for Nine DJI Clone Brands

DJI's plan to keep selling its drones and cameras in the United States through look-alike brands is running out of legal road. The Federal Communications Commission is moving to add nine companies to its "Covered List," a short roster of foreign-linked electronics that effectively cannot be sold or imported into the US without special authorization. Two of the companies are Skyrover, which sells clones of DJI's Mini drones, and Xtra, which sells rebranded versions of DJI's Osmo cameras.

The action is a precedent. It is the first time the FCC has used retroactive revocation to pull back equipment authorizations it had already granted, after concluding that those products were created to circumvent an existing ban. The agency's Public Notice DA-26-758 opens a 30-day public comment window this week. Once that window closes, the affected companies' products are expected to be blocked from US shelves by mid-August.

The underlying ban dates to late 2025, when the FCC added certain unmanned aircraft systems and UAS components, including DJI's gear, to the Covered List. The trigger was the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual US defense bill, which President Biden signed in late 2024. The law required DJI to pass a security audit within a calendar year to keep marketing new products in the US. No audit was completed, and the FCC's December 2025 update locked the ban in.

That is where the clone-brands come in. PCMag's reporting, citing an interview with DJI's Adam Welsh, outlines the strategy: Skyrover markets drones that look like DJI's Mini series (the Skyrover X1 sitting next to a DJI Mini 4 Pro, for instance), while Xtra sells cameras that resemble the Osmo Pocket 3 line under names like the Xtra Muse. DJI says it does not own or operate the US brands, and the FCC's filings describe the relationship as circumvention rather than direct corporate control. The companies were nonetheless authorized to sell their products in the US until now.

The current action is the FCC's response to that workaround. The agency proposed prohibiting the import and marketing of the covered equipment. Combined with retroactive revocation, that step gives regulators a new tool for catching products that route around the original ban. The Verge's coverage of the Skyrover and Xtra additions frames the move as a test case for how aggressively the FCC will pursue look-alike products going forward.

Legal analysis from Wiley Rein, a Washington firm that tracks the FCC's actions, outlines the exemptions and clarifications the agency has built into the prohibition. Some existing authorizations may survive if the affected companies can show their products fall outside the scope of the new rules, and the 30-day public comment period is the formal lane for those arguments. DPReview notes that a retroactive ban could wipe Xtra and other suspected DJI clones from US shelves if the FCC holds its course.

Xtra, in a statement to PCMag, called the action "a heavy-handed attempt to deny American consumers choice." DJI has not commented on the FCC's specific allegations against the nine companies. The companies named beyond Skyrover and Xtra have not been publicly identified in the FCC filings reviewed so far, leaving room for a longer roster to surface during the comment window.

The clock starts when the FCC publishes the notice in the Federal Register. Thirty days later, absent a reversal, the FCC's first retroactive revocation takes effect. That is the deadline retailers, importers, and anyone with a Skyrover or Xtra box already at home are watching. The same playbook, of routing restricted foreign gear through US-facing look-alike brands, has shown up in other corners of the consumer electronics market. The FCC's willingness to use retroactive revocation here signals that those workarounds are now the next enforcement target, not the next loophole.