Strava sues Garmin in bizarre patent infringement lawsuit

Strava, a popular fitness tracking app, has filed a lawsuit against Garmin, another major player in the fitness tech industry. The lawsuit alleges that Garmin has infringed on Strava's patents for two features: segments and heatmaps. Strava is also claiming that Garmin violated a Master Cooperation Agreement by developing its own heatmap feature. The lawsuit is surprising, as Strava and Garmin have worked together for nearly a decade, with numerous integrations between their platforms. Experts suggest that Strava's arguments are unlikely to hold up in court, given the companies' patent filings history. Strava's Chief Product Officer, Matt Salazar, has provided some insight into the company's motivation, stating that the lawsuit is a response to Garmin's new developer guidelines, which require the Garmin logo to be displayed on every activity post, screen, graph, and image. Salazar frames this as a move to protect users' data, but the argument seems more like a complaint about Garmin asserting its brand on the data collected by its products. Overall, this lawsuit appears to be a strange and unexpected development in the relationship between the two fitness tech giants, and it remains to be seen whether it will cause any disruptions for their respective customers.