This week, the world of activity tracking was rocked by major news. The American company Strava, arguably the most famous sports app developer globally, has sued American sports watch maker Garmin.
Strava accuses (paywall) Garmin of violating its patents and is demanding that the court immediately block sales of all Garmin-made smartwatches as well as devices like bike computers.
At the heart of the dispute are two of Strava's software patents.
One concerns route sections, or segments, while the other covers so-called heatmaps.
Segments are a highly popular feature among Strava users, where, for instance, a specific stretch of a park becomes its own "section." In Strava, you can automatically track how well you performed on that stretch compared to others who have run along the same route.
Surprisingly, Garmin has had a similar feature in its Connect app since 2014 - though its implementation was so confusing that it was rarely used. Instead, Strava and Garmin later jointly developed the segment feature now found in Strava, launching it a year later.
The other patent at issue relates to heatmaps. In this context, a heatmap is a map that highlights with colors where other users of the same app typically train. Thanks to this, it's easy to discover popular running routes - even in a new city.
What makes Strava's lawsuit particularly striking is the fact that Garmin and Strava have been inseparable partners for over a decade. The companies have long collaborated, and Garmin's integration with Strava has been exceptionally seamless. Garmin reportedly even considered acquiring Strava years ago, but since the partnership was working so well, it chose to simply continue collaborating instead.
The topic has been widely analyzed, including by DC Rainmaker, who concluded that Strava is essentially throwing a tantrum because relations between Garmin and Strava have soured over the past year--particularly over data branding.
The company even responded officially on Reddit, where Strava all but admitted that it is upset.
What's upsetting Strava is that Garmin now wants all shared data--say, when a user posts their workout to social media--to clearly state if the activity was recorded with a Garmin watch. So if a user shares a Strava screenshot of their run, it should visibly say that the run was tracked using a Garmin device.
In a way, Strava is now getting a taste of its own medicine: Strava tightened its own API rules last year, forcing hundreds of small app developers using Strava data to display clearly within their apps that the data originated from Strava.
Industry observers don't see Strava's case as particularly strong. Garmin and many other companies had heatmaps in use well before Strava obtained its patent in 2016. If the court determines that the technology was already in use, the patent could be invalidated. The same likely applies to the segment-related patent as well.
What does seem certain, however, is that the once seemingly unbreakable partnership between Strava and Garmin is coming to an end for good.
At the heart of the dispute are two of Strava's software patents.
One concerns route sections, or segments, while the other covers so-called heatmaps.
Segments are a highly popular feature among Strava users, where, for instance, a specific stretch of a park becomes its own "section." In Strava, you can automatically track how well you performed on that stretch compared to others who have run along the same route.
Surprisingly, Garmin has had a similar feature in its Connect app since 2014 - though its implementation was so confusing that it was rarely used. Instead, Strava and Garmin later jointly developed the segment feature now found in Strava, launching it a year later.
The other patent at issue relates to heatmaps. In this context, a heatmap is a map that highlights with colors where other users of the same app typically train. Thanks to this, it's easy to discover popular running routes - even in a new city.
What makes Strava's lawsuit particularly striking is the fact that Garmin and Strava have been inseparable partners for over a decade. The companies have long collaborated, and Garmin's integration with Strava has been exceptionally seamless. Garmin reportedly even considered acquiring Strava years ago, but since the partnership was working so well, it chose to simply continue collaborating instead.
The topic has been widely analyzed, including by DC Rainmaker, who concluded that Strava is essentially throwing a tantrum because relations between Garmin and Strava have soured over the past year--particularly over data branding.
The company even responded officially on Reddit, where Strava all but admitted that it is upset.
What's upsetting Strava is that Garmin now wants all shared data--say, when a user posts their workout to social media--to clearly state if the activity was recorded with a Garmin watch. So if a user shares a Strava screenshot of their run, it should visibly say that the run was tracked using a Garmin device.
In a way, Strava is now getting a taste of its own medicine: Strava tightened its own API rules last year, forcing hundreds of small app developers using Strava data to display clearly within their apps that the data originated from Strava.
Industry observers don't see Strava's case as particularly strong. Garmin and many other companies had heatmaps in use well before Strava obtained its patent in 2016. If the court determines that the technology was already in use, the patent could be invalidated. The same likely applies to the segment-related patent as well.
What does seem certain, however, is that the once seemingly unbreakable partnership between Strava and Garmin is coming to an end for good.
