Hot on the heels of Strava filing a lawsuit against Garmin that claims the American tech company infringed on several decade-old patents relating to segments and heatmaps, Finnish smartwatch manufacturer Suunto has coincidentally filed a suit against Garmin, claiming that it has also infringed on several patents, first reported by the Garmin rumours website.
Suunto is claiming damages and a court injunction that would forbid Garmin from selling devices that use the patented technology. This would effectively limit the sale of much of Garmin’s watch lineup.
Further patent infringement
While the Strava lawsuit was primarily based on software, this Suunto suit covers some software and hardware designs. The patents that are claimed to have been infringed relate to automatic golf swing detection, respiration features, and the physical antenna design that allows wireless communication in a metal-bodied watch.
Several of these patents are approaching their expiration, according to Garmin rumours, so it is suggested that the timing of this case may be such that it provides Suunto, if successful, with some degree of protection.
With the three patents mentioned above combined, Suunto is effectively launching a challenge on Garmin’s entire watch range, including the Fenix 5 to 8, the Approach golf watch range, plus some accessory sensors, the Forerunner, Instinct, Venu, and MARQ models too.
While the timing appears to have had some coordination, these lawsuits from Suunto and Strava were filed in different courts at different times and so are coincidental, at least as far as we can tell.
Garmin has yet to comment publicly on this case, though, judging by its response to the Strava lawsuit, which amounted to a strict ‘no comment’, I don’t think we should anticipate one anytime soon.
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