Last 30 September, the fitness tracking app Strava filed a complaint against tech giant Garmin — yes, the manufacturer of sportswatch that you, my dear readers, are likely wearing on your wrists.

To us runners, it is a bit like Mommy and Daddy are fighting and you just wish for them to kiss and make up already. But, no, we do not want them to make us choose.

In a nutshell, Strava is claiming patent violations and breach of contract. In its around 400-page complaint, it is asking the United States District Court of Colorado for a permanent injunction barring Garmin from making, using, selling, or importing systems embodying the segments and heatmapping features, which practically covers most of Garmin’s devices on the market.  

Do we panic buy now? Not really.      

Strava claims to have intellectual property rights through various patents related to “segments” (user-defined route comparisons) and “heatmaps” (popularity based routing). 

The Strava “segment” patent was filed in 2011 and granted in 2015.  

On the other hand, Garmin introduced Garmin Segments in 2014. For us non-techies, a segment is just a stretch of the road, trail, or path that someone marks in Strava. When you run or ride over that stretch, Strava automatically compares your time against your own times and other people’s times. This motivates athletes by “gamifying” training.  

Garmin Segments, on the other hand, are pre-loaded to one’s device. While running or cycling, your device shows if you’re ahead or behind your target.

The major difference is Strava presents “segments” as more of a social leaderboard, while Garmin adapted it more as a training tool with real-time feedback on one’s device.

In any case, in April 2015, Strava and Garmin entered into a “Mutual Cooperation Agreement” (MCA) permitting Garmin to use defined Strava Segments. But now Strava is claiming: “Garmin received limited permission from Strava to implement Strava Segments on their devices; however, they leveraged this access to carefully study those features, painstakingly copy them, and then release them as Garmin features.”  

However, as noted by vlogger DC Rainmaker, Garmin has been using the Segments feature for a decade.  Why complain only now? Garmin will likely say that Strava is trying to retroactively restrict rights Garmin already paid for under the MCA.

The complaint as regards the heatmapping feature is even less clear-cut. Strava applied for its patent in 2014 and it was granted in 2016. However, it appears that Garmin first started using heatmaps in Garmin Connect as early as 2013. And there were other sites that had been using heatmaps like MapMyRide, MapMyRun, etc.

The fact that Strava secured a patent for something that was already widely used does not give it a better right. This is what is known as the “prior art” doctrine under US law. A patent claim is not novel and an already issued patent may be invalidated if, at the time of the application, the “invention” was already in public use or otherwise available to the public.  

Garmin may also argue that Strava is trying to monopolize basic athletic features that are now industry standard.

Users like you and me are naturally worried what this growing acrimony will mean: Will connections or syncing of activities break, etc.? 

Strava thankfully gave this assurance:  “Our lawsuit is between two companies; we do not intend to take any actions that would disrupt the ability of Garmin users to sync their data with Strava and hope Garmin values our shared users in the same way.”

It is indeed interesting how this epic battle will pan out.