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15 hours ago
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Strava’s multifaceted legal (and social media) attack on Garmin was short-lived. Just 21 days after filing the original patent infringement case, alongside a Reddit post from their executive team attacking Garmin, the company has decided to dismiss the case against Garmin.
Court filings indicate that earlier today (Tuesday, Oct 21st), Strava filed paperwork to voluntarily dismiss the case entirely. The case, which covered two patent infringements (covering heat map routing pieces, as well as Strava Live Segments), had requested the court to halt the sales of offending Garmin products (effectively all wearable and bike computers).
The filing today by Strava is incredibly brief, just a single line, stating:
“Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i), Plaintiff Strava, Inc., by and through its undersigned counsel, voluntarily dismisses the above-captioned action, without prejudice. “
In looking the case history, there were no filings/responses by Garmin over the 21 days, except for today, when Garmin formally listed their attorneys of record on the case, tied to the then dismissal of the case. Said differently, everything basically happened behind the scenes.
The Details:
The case was baffling to many in the industry, both from a technical and legal standpoint. From a technical standpoint, it didn’t appear to hold very much water, especially on the heat map side. And on the segments side, was seen as a potentially risky way for Strava to get their patents invalidated.
But more critically, the case brought enormous risks for Strava. Garmin is Strava’s most important partner, and the single biggest 3rd party source of customer revenue (meaning, Garmin customers are the biggest slice of paid Strava subscriptions). Further, Garmin’s data (paid subscriber or otherwise), fuels massive portions of Strava’s platform from a route standpoint. If Garmin were to shut off that connection, it would almost immediately spell the end of Strava (in astonishingly quick succession).
There’s much speculation on the reason Strava decided to sue Garmin, with some speculating it was due to Strava’s upcoming IPO (slated for 2026), and trying to assert patent rights, demonstrating they have an intellectual property library to generate revenue from. The problem was, they (bafflingly) choose their single biggest and closest historical partner to test this theory, and then selected questionable patents, and atop all that, did it in the riskiest way possible.
But Strava somehow ignored the fact that Garmin almost never loses patent battles. It’s actually rather astonishing how well Garmin defends against patent infringement claims over the last 10-15 years. Further, in this case, Garmin has a massive patent library of its own (dwarfing Strava’s roughly 20 patents), from which to counter-sue. It’s almost certain that Strava would have infringed somewhere there, even if entirely accidentally.
However, beyond all that, Strava miscalculated on how much, as one insider put it “Garmin isn’t going to blink”. Especially in light of Suunto filing a patent infringement case against Garmin roughly a week prior (that case is much different than Strava’s, and seems to be very much focused on extracting money). Specifically, had Garmin decided to settle, it would send a message that it was open season. But by effectively requiring Strava to file this case as a voluntary dismissal, it essentially tells the rest of the legal world that Garmin came back to the table with Strava and essentially said: ‘We’re now going to outline how we will systematically and legally disembody you in the most painful way possible, as a company, unless you drop this lawsuit’.
What Happens Next:
This is where things get infesting. To begin, at a partnership standpoint, Strava entirely effed itself here. They had the closest possible relationship with Strava, for the better part of 15 years. And they not just burned that bridge, but the entire city around it. We’ve already seen Garmin announce new integrations with Komoot (and Strava competitor) over the past two weeks.
Next, there’s the executive team at Strava. To say they ‘hosed up’ would be the understatement of the year here. While some speculate the plan was always to dismiss, and use it as marketing for the IPO, I don’t buy that. Because while it drew attention to the IPO, it also drew attention to the incredible risks (and now repercussions) of this move. At the end of the day, Strava killed their most important relationship, while driving that partner to their competitors. And that ignores the angry customers (the people actually paying Strava). The only signal this sent, was that Strava’s management team is unable to manage this business into the future, let alone a massive IPO.
As to how the relationship between Garmin & Strava goes forward? Who knows. Time does heal most things, but one has to remember that most employees at Garmin are lifers. Literally. The people at Garmin in the executive teams (and down to the partnership teams) have literally been there since before Strava existed, working their way up the chain. They know every bit of history, and certainly don’t forget.
Whether not Strava though, can learn from history? That’s a bigger question.
With that, thanks for reading!
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