Garmin and Strava are very recognisable names within the fitness tech space. As longstanding partners, the two brands share a lot of integrations between their respective platforms. So, it may come as a surprise that one party is suing the other.
Earlier this week, Strava filed a lawsuit against Garmin, claiming that the latter infringed on its patents for two features. The first of these is segments, which is a feature allowing athletes to compare performance times for selected routes. The other is a heatmaps feature for indicating popular areas for activity. The lawsuit also alleges that Garmin violated a Master Cooperation Agreement by offering its own take on heatmaps.
Strava is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Garmin from selling products with these features, claiming that “monetary relief alone is inadequate”. Of course, this would affect most of Garmin’s devices, including its Forerunner and Fenix watches. Other products that would be impacted are Edge bike computers, as well as the Garmin Connect app.
That is, of course, if Strava proves successful in its endeavour. It is unlikely that the company’s assertions will hold up in court. What’s more, these supposed infringements occurred a long time ago, so it’s odd that Strava is only taking issue with them now. It is also worth noting that Garmin had actually introduced heatmaps to its app in 2013, a year before Strava’s patent filings.
Setting the record straight about Garmin
byu/strava-team inStrava
And then there’s the Reddit post by Strava Chief Product Officer Matt Salazar. In the post, Salazar explained one of the reasons the brand is suing its longtime collaborator. Back in July, Garmin announced new developer guidelines for its API partners requiring the inclusion of the Garmin logo on “every single activity post, screen, graph, image, sharing card etc”. Failure to comply would result in the brand cutting off access to its API. Strava is apparently taking issue with this requirement.
For now, it is unclear how the lawsuit will affect the user experience. Speaking to The Verge, Strava spokesperson Brian Bell stated that the company does not intend to act in a way that would “disrupt the ability of Garmin users to sync their data with Strava”. Bell went on to say that the company hopes Garmin values its shared users in the same way.
