Strava Demands Garmin For Alleged Patent Violations

Strava sue Garmin (photo: Doc. Garmin)

JAKARTA Strava, a public tracking company, filed a lawsuit against its old partner, Garmin. This lawsuit was filed on charges of patent infringement of Strava's main features.

The lawsuit was filed on September 30 with the aim of preventing Garmin from selling most of its current product lines. According to Strava's claim, reported by The Verge, Garmin has violated the Main Cooperation Agreement (MCA) between them.

For this violation, Strava asked the court to prohibit Garmin from selling devices with segment mapping features or hot maps. These demands specifically target Garmin Connect, Edge bicycle computers, as well as Forerunner, Fenix, and Epix watches.

This legal step is certainly surprising to many because not a few Strava users take advantage of Garmin's watches. In fact, the Garmin Forerunner 235 watch is recorded as the most popular clock among Strava users around the world.

However, violations cannot be ignored. Strava has obtained patents for segment features, a tool that allows athletes to compare performance on designated routes, since 2015.

"Garmin received limited permission from Strava to implement Strava Segments on their devices," said Strava Spokesman Brian Bell. "(Garmin) took advantage of this access to learn these features carefully, copied them carefully, then released them as a Garmin feature."

Strava also accused Garmin of violating two additional patents related to hot maps and route suggestions based on popularity. These features are also believed to be used on Garmin Connect devices and platforms. Strava's heat map patent was filed in 2014 and approved in 2016.

"Garmin rejected Strava's repeated attempts to deal with Garmin's informal abuses, forcing Strava to take a stand and file a lawsuit," Bell added.

Strava confirmed that this lawsuit was filed to protect their discovery. The company said it would not interfere with Garmin users' ability to sync their data with Strava.