Strava abandons Garmin lawsuit, so what was the point of it all?

As reported today by DC Rainmaker, Strava has dropped its lawsuit against Garmin relating to claimed patent infringement on some of its heatmap and segment features.

A short court filing by Strava simply states that (once you cut out the legal preamble) “Plaintiff Strava, Inc., by and through its undersigned counsel, voluntarily dismisses the above-captioned action, without prejudice.”

Given that no other court documents have been filed, it appears that machinations, if any, have been taking place behind the scenes. Regardless, for users of both Strava and Garmin it seems a collective sigh of relief can be breathed as the potential for Garmin activities no longer being uploaded doesn’t seem like it will come to pass.

It is unclear, however, whether Strava will have to comply with Garmin’s rules on labelling Garmin-derived data in accordance with Garmin’s rules, something Strava was very against.

Who’s the winner in all this?

Stepping back from the actual legal proceedings into a more speculative position, it’s hard to see what Strava gained, if anything at all, from this endeavour. Garmin has been a key partner for years, basically since Strava launched, and Garmin users make up a massive portion of its user base – it’s worth remembering that while us cyclists are split more evenly between Wahoo and Garmin, in the running world Garmin is more dominant with its watches, and running remains the most uploaded sport on Strava.

Komoot, a key Strava competitor, recently announced a partnership with Garmin and Komoot is now specifically recommended to Garmin users as part of the onboarding process with the setup of a new device, so not only has Strava seemingly killed one of its most important relationships, but Garmin is now actively teaming up with the competition.

What was the end goal here? That is hard to fathom, at least from my standpoint. Patent infringement is certainly grounds for a court case (as that’s the whole point of the patent) but from reading around the case DC Rainmaker points out that there was a high risk of the patents being invalidated as an alternative outcome.

With an IPO now confirmed by Strava’s CEO whether this small saga aids or hinders the upcoming valuation will come out in the wash.