There have been many talks in recent days about the application of Fitness Strava and the Finnish Smart Watches company Suunto presenting separate lawsuits against Garmin, and what that means for the millions of people who have one or more of the best Garmin watches.
We have deactivated the entire situation below, along with the probable results of this legal quagmire that still evolves.
Strava’s demand and what it means to you
The Strava/Garmin demand dates back to 2011, when Strava presented the patent of what would become its segment technology. The segments allow users to determine how well they have done between two points in a course, using GPS technology to provide data on the user who travels between those points.
The patent was finally awarded in 2015, but Garmin achieved Strava in the position, launching his own segment function in 2014 on the Cycling computer Edge 1000. Since then, Garmin and Strava collaborated in a master cooperation agreement to put live segments of Strava on Garmin devices, and the two have worked together closely for a decade.
Now, Strava has submitted three patent infraction charges against Garmin and one for breach of contract, as revealed by Garminrumors, apparently for violating this agreement.
Section 55 of the lawsuit establishes: “Garmin expanded far beyond the scope of that agreement. Garmin built, qualifies and implemented Garmin’s brand segments outside the Strava experience and users not Strava; enabled segment competition and boldards in Garmin Connect (web and mobile) and on devices; and the results of the segments of the exhibition of the exhibition of the exhibition of the exhibition, the restrictions.
Strava has now decided to take measures on a long -term subject between the couple, despite how closely Strava and Garmin have been working together in the function.
The other two patent infraction charges refer to heat maps, and how they are recommended and shown routes of other users in Garmin and Strava applications. This patent, presented in 2016 under the title ‘Generation of user preferably maps’ and granted in 2017, (according to the demand) supposedly it has been breached by Garmin “as of July 25, 2025”.
Strava has requested damage to the Court Award and orders Garmin to permanently cease the sale of watches with the offending technology.
That is the main concern for users: that Garmin watches are not sold until the legal situation is resolved, or that Garmin will be forced to eliminate the characteristics of their watches, through a software update such as Apple was with its blood oxygen sensor. We will know more safely in the next few days.
A REDDIT revealing publication
Putting the record on Garmin de R/Strava
All that sounds relatively simple, but another problem has emerged that could explain why Strava has chosen to arm this long -term problem.
Strava Products Director Matt Salazar, resorted to the Strava Subnet on Friday, October 3 to address a problem with the Garmin API or the application programming interface. Garmin wants to show his logo when his data is shared with third -party services, including Strava, and, according to reports, threatens to withdraw from those services if he cannot do it.
Salazar wrote: “We already provided an attribution for each data partner, but Garmin wants to use Strava and any other partner as an advertising platform: they told us that they care more about their marketing than their user experience. We consider that these are their data.”
It seems that the moment of this is not a coincidence. Garmin has presented an ultimatum to Strava, so Strava is shooting, trying to increase support in the Strava community and introduce a apparently unrelated patent dispute.
Unfortunately for Strava, the Reddit Post failed. Reddit users rushed to point out the hypocrisy, since Strava shows their own logo by sharing data to other applications, and has adopted approaches to my path or the road with third -party applications before.
“I do not think that for a second is doing this to defend us and our data and our user experience, and no one else is buying it,” said a poster.
“As a premium (paid) member of Strava, I want to be clear that Strava is only useful for me if it works with Garmin. At the time Strava no longer synchronized with Garmin Connect is the last time I open Strava.” said another.
At the time of writing, the publication has 0 votes and more than 1,300 comments. Oof.
What happens to Suunto?
It seems that I have smelled blood in the water and wants to join the food frenzy, hitting Garmin with his own demand in which he affirms that Garmin has infringed at least five patents presented in suunto.
These include patents in golf watches, such as a computer operated by the wrist that can detect an attack event and determine the position of a GPS ball; an energy efficiency method to use heart rate sensor data to determine a user’s respiratory speed; and an antenna assembly technology that also allows the incorporation of additional metal components without interfering with signal or reception.
Suunto names many watches, including the ranges of Fenix, Freerunner, Venu, Instinct and Epix. It even goes after the ranges of Marq Ultra Premium, such as the Garmin Marq Golfer Gen 2, which we recently granted five stars in our review.
Suunto is looking for damage to Garmin due to the potential loss of income, but does not demand that he stop the sale of these watches, a relief for those looking for discounts from Amazon Big Days in Garmin Fenix 8. Even if the case of Suunto is maintained, you can still get a garmin.
