Garmin is facing another legal battle after Suunto filed a lawsuit against the company alleging that five of its patents were infringed upon.
In a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas September 22, Suunto claims that Garmin violated patents relating to antenna design, devices measuring respiratory rate, watch casing, tracking golf swings and implemented the features in Garmin devices like the Marq, Epix, Fenix, Instinct, Venu and Forerunner models.
All of Garmin models mentioned in the lawsuit are among the company’s most popular wearables and Sunnto believes that some attributes from its own devices were incorporated in Garmin’s technology.
Suunto, a Finnish-based manufacturer, is asking for a permanent injunction to block the sales of the devices that use the features named in the lawsuit and has not specified an exact amount for damages.
Garmin is already navigating its way through another lawsuit after it was revealed last week that Strava claimed that the brand violated a pair of patents relating to heatmaps and segments features.
According to Strava, Garmin broke a working agreement the companies initially signed in 2015 to develop segments.
Heatmaps are a core feature in Strava and users to see an overlay of routes that runners and cyclists have used, while segments allow users to identify specific points they have previously crossed with that data eventually being stored and ranked among other used who have also crossed the same points.
A patent for segments was filed in 2011 and granted in 2015, while the heatmap patent (and an ancillary patent) was issued in in 2016 and 2017 after being filed in 2014 and 2016.
Strava also claims it “suffered damages, including lost revenue and business opportunities, erosion of competitive differentiation and network effects, harm to goodwill, and unjust gains to Garmin.”
