Strava has filed a surprising lawsuit against Garmin, alleging patent infringement on fitness tracking features and seeking a sales ban on Garmin devices.
Quick Summary – TLDR:
- Strava is suing Garmin, claiming infringement on patents for segments and heatmaps.
- The lawsuit also alleges violation of a 2015 Master Cooperation Agreement between the two companies.
- Strava is demanding a permanent injunction that could impact most of Garmin’s fitness devices.
- The real motive may involve Garmin’s new API branding guidelines, which Strava sees as overreach.
What Happened?
Strava has taken legal action against Garmin, its longtime collaborator in the fitness tech industry. The lawsuit accuses Garmin of infringing on two of Strava’s patents involving workout route tracking features – segments, which compare athletic performance across routes, and heatmaps, which show popular workout paths. The lawsuit also cites a breach of a Master Cooperation Agreement (MCA) signed between the two companies in 2015.
Exclusive: Strava just sued Garmin, demanding the company stop selling all their fitness devices (watches and bike computers), due to infringing on a patent. I dive into what’s being said, a whole lot of history, what it means, and much more: https://t.co/oSqt10EeKb pic.twitter.com/wjmWeuzI0a
— Ray Maker (@dcrainmakerblog) October 2, 2025
The Legal Claims and the Patent Tensions
Strava’s complaint centers around two core features:
- Segments: Strava claims Garmin copied its unique implementation of segments, which lets users track and compete on specific route portions. This feature has been integral to Strava’s platform since before the companies partnered.
- Heatmaps: The second issue is about Garmin’s use of activity heatmaps. Strava says its 2014 patents, granted in 2016, protect its method of generating user-preference activity maps. But Garmin began offering heatmaps back in 2013, before Strava filed its patent, which raises serious questions about prior art and whether Strava’s patents should have been granted in the first place.
Despite these patents being active for nearly a decade, Strava only filed this lawsuit in mid-2025, which many see as a curious delay in enforcement. According to court filings, Garmin was officially notified in late June and July 2025, but its products, including the Forerunner and Fenix watches, Edge bike computers, and Garmin Connect app have featured segments and heatmaps for years.
A Decade-Old Partnership Turning Sour
Strava and Garmin were once considered the strongest allies in fitness tech. Their partnership enabled deep data sync and cross-platform features, particularly after the 2015 Master Cooperation Agreement allowed Garmin to integrate Strava Live Segments into its smart fitness watches.
The lawsuit suggests Garmin overstepped this agreement by building and promoting its own Garmin Segments outside of the Strava experience, even to non-Strava users. Strava alleges this was not only unauthorized but also a violation of licensing terms, confidential materials, and user experience agreements.
But Why Now?
Many in the industry suspect the lawsuit is about more than patents. In July 2025, Garmin introduced new API branding guidelines requiring third-party platforms to include the Garmin logo on all user-shared content sourced from Garmin data. Strava saw this as aggressive branding and a disruption to user experience.
Matt Salazar, Strava’s Chief Product Officer, posted on Reddit saying the requirement was “blatant advertising” and that “Garmin doesn’t even provide data attribution for third-party devices” on its own platform. Strava also pushed back on Garmin’s use of user-generated data for promotional purposes, insisting the data belongs to the athletes.
Setting the record straight about Garmin
byu/strava-team inStrava
This branding dispute echoes tensions from late 2024 when Strava enforced strict API rules on smaller partners. Garmin, as a major contributor of user data, was largely spared back then. Now, with Garmin tightening its own API policies, the friction has escalated.
The Stakes for Users
While the lawsuit sounds dramatic, Strava is asking for a complete sales ban on Garmin devices with segment and heatmap features. It’s unclear if this will lead to any actual disruption. Strava says it does not plan to block Garmin users from syncing activities and hopes Garmin will continue to respect their shared user base.
Garmin has offered no public comment beyond its standard line: “Garmin generally does not comment on pending litigation.”
If Strava wins the case, it could severely impact Garmin’s hardware sales and feature offerings. But industry analysts say it’s more likely that the court will question the validity of Strava’s patents due to previous public implementations of the features, some of which even predate Strava’s patent filings.
SQ Magazine Takeaway
I have to say, this feels like a strange move from Strava. Suing your biggest partner responsible for sending you most of your paying customers over decade-old features? That’s not just risky, it’s potentially self-sabotaging. Garmin may be quiet, but they have deep patent portfolios and a long history of winning in court. If this gets ugly, Strava could be the one facing real damage. I get wanting to protect your innovations, but going after your biggest data source in an already niche market is playing with fire.
