Strava drops lawsuit against Garmin

Strava withdraws its lawsuit against Garmin: The fitness platform has informed the responsible court with a short letter, reports DC Rainmaker. Why this decision was made is unclear. The patent infringement lawsuit was only filed by Strava a few weeks ago.

According to industry expert DC Rainmaker, Garmin never publicly or officially responded to Strava's lawsuit. This suggests that both parties have reached an out-of-court settlement. This is not surprising: Garmin and Strava have been working together for years. Garmin watches and fitness trackers use tracking functions developed and operated by Strava.

Lawsuit surprising to many

The lawsuit therefore came as a surprise to many. Strava demanded that Garmin stop selling its fitness trackers, which in turn could have significantly harmed Strava's business. Segments are predefined routes with leaderboards where athletes can compete against each other. Strava's lawsuit was particularly questionable regarding the heatmaps: Garmin had offered a comparable function for years before Strava was granted a patent for its own implementation.

Beyond the actual lawsuit, Strava also tried to stir up sentiment against Garmin within the fitness community. In a Reddit post, Strava's Chief Product Officer Matt Salazar explained the lawsuit by new developer guidelines that Garmin had implemented in the summer. According to these, Strava would have to display Garmin logos among other things in its services. Previous negotiations with Garmin had failed.

It remains open whether Strava has now achieved a negotiation success through the lawsuit or has concluded that the legal action has little prospect of success. So far, the company has not commented on the withdrawal of the lawsuit.

(dahe)