Patent infringement lawsuit by Strava against Garmin over segments and heatmaps

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Tracking specialist Strava is demanding that navigation device manufacturer Garmin stop selling its fitness trackers. According to Strava, the Swiss company is infringing two patents on the core functions of the Strava network, Heatmaps and Segments.

Heatmaps displays information in a map overlay about how busy routes are in the map section. This makes it easy to identify particularly popular routes for runners and cyclists, which has also been a safety issue in the past. Segments is a system that creates a ranking list for defined routes. This allows users to compete directly with each other.

Implemented for ten years

As both functions thrive on the largest possible number of participants, it is astonishing in itself that Strava has started such an argument. This is even more astonishing given that Garmin has been offering these functions for around ten years, which cannot have escaped Strava's notice.

Nothing should change for users for now. Strava points out that Garmin devices can continue to synchronise with its platform.

Both companies had signed a cooperation agreement for Segments in 2015, after Garmin had implemented this function a year earlier. Strava is now accusing Garmin of breaching this agreement.

Possible dispute over patents

According to a report by the tech blog DC Rainmaker, the patent for Segments was filed on 31 March 2011 and granted around four years later. However, Strava had already offered the service in 2009. However, the US Patent Office usually only grants a one-year grace period in such cases to apply for patents after the start of commercialisation. This may be a point where Garmin could pull the lever to bring the patent down.

According to the blog, there is even more at stake with Heatmaps: the basic patent was filed on 15 December 2014 and granted two years later. Strava filed a patent based on this in 2016 and was granted in 2017.

However, the heatmap functions described in the patent were already in use before that. Garmin had already introduced such a function at the beginning of 2013, and another third-party provider had apparently already realised such a heat map in October 2012. As a general rule, if a patent is granted in error even though the patented method was not new at the time of the application, the patent can be declared null and void by a court on request.

Failed negotiations

In a statement published on Reddit, Strava product manager Matt Salazar explained why Garmin was being sued. The reason for this was Garmin's new developer guidelines, which require all API partners to name the company every time they use the data provided by Garmin. This puts marketing above the user experience, as well as customer data. Negotiations about this with Garmin had failed, which is why legal action is now being taken against it.

(uma)