Strava is suing Garmin over patent infringements

Strava has filed a lawsuit against Garmin, accusing the wearable giant of infringing on patents tied to two of its best-known features: segments and heatmaps. The company wants a permanent injunction that would effectively bar Garmin from selling a wide swath of devices and its Connect tracking platform if those features remain.

On paper, that’s a bombshell move—two long-time partners, suddenly at each other’s throats. Strava and Garmin have collaborated for over a decade, building integrations used by millions of runners, cyclists and weekend warriors. But experts aren’t convinced Strava has much of a case. As DC Rainmaker points out, Garmin’s patents and product timeline muddy the waters, and the alleged infringements date back years. If they were so egregious, why wait until now?

The answer may lie less in patents and more in branding. Strava’s Chief Product Officer, Matt Salazar, popped up on Reddit to explain that Garmin’s new API rules sparked the dispute. Those rules reportedly require Garmin’s logo to appear on every activity, map, chart and sharing card that passes through Strava. Salazar framed the lawsuit as a way to protect users’ data, but the explanation reads more like a turf war over whose name sits on top of your morning run.