- Strava sues Garmin for patent violation
- It claims that Garmin’s segments and Heatmaps features go against its patents
- Strava is looking to block the sale of Garmin’s offensive technology (which are a lot of devices that include smartwatches and bicycle computers)
Strava and Garmin seem to go into a legal battle that could see your Smart Watch losing some training features or even serious affect the availability of the best Garmin watches, the company’s other hardware and its Connect platform.
So what happens? Well, Strava is suing Garmin in the United States because it claims that Fitness -hardware -brand violates Strava’s patents and violated a Master Collaboration Agreement, the duo reached back in 2015 (spotted by DC Rainmaker).
The patents relate to Strava’s segments and Heatmaps features – which let runners and cyclists compare services across sections of routes and see routes especially popular among other athletes.
Garmin and Strava offer both variations of these features, but Strava claims Garmin’s versions are in violation of their cooperation agreement. As such, Strava not only seeks financial damage, it has also requested an order to stop Garmin by selling products that support these features -which essentially include all its best fitness trackers, bicycle computers and Connect Fitness platform.
So you might want to wait and see how the dispute develops before you buy the new Garmin Smart Watch you’ve looked up.
What happens next?
At the time of writing, we are still in the early stages of this trial. This means that no devices or functions are yet affected – and the duo can come to some agreement before their disagreement reaches a legal space.
In a statement to The Verge, however, Strava claims “Garmin rejected Strava’s repeated attempts to tackle Garmin’s violation informally, forcing Strava to take a stand in the case and files,” suggests their disagreement may extend.
If units are prohibited, there is a chance that they are not gone for good. Instead, it may look like what happened to Apple Watch after it was involved in a patent direction related to blood oxygen sensor. In this case, Apple was able to make the feature out via a software update and continue to sell its devices.
If a judge makes a decision in Strava’s benefit in terms of a sales ban, this may be the route Garmin takes to continue offering his hardware, and possibly a trimmed version of Garmin Connect.
That said, the dispute looks far from the clip and dried.
Garmin’s Heatmap function dates from 2013, which pretends the 2014 and 2016 patents that Strava mentions in his trial. As for the Segments feature, Garmin’s debuted in 2013, which after Strava filed a patent in 2011.
So we will have to see and see what happens in this case, and if it progresses, we may not see a final judgment for years of litigation and appeals – when things develop, we will be sure to keep you updated.
Follow Techradar on Google News and Add us as a preferred source To get our expert news, reviews and meaning in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too Follow Techradar at Tiktok For news, reviews, unboxings in video form and get regular updates from us at WhatsApp also.
