Good news, Strava’s short-lived legal battle with Garmin is officially over! The run tracking app has voluntarily withdrawn its lawsuit against Garmin, meaning that the integration between the two platforms isn’t going anywhere. For those who records their rides or runs with a Garmin device before syncing to Strava, this marks the end of a very unnecessary panic.
The lawsuit accused Garmin of infringing on two Strava patents – one relating to heatmaps and another to segments. Strava claimed the dispute stemmed from new Garmin developer rules requiring any data originating from a Garmin device to carry Garmin branding. At one point, Strava appeared to be demanding that Garmin stop selling devices that contributed to heatmaps or used its own segment system – effectively almost every Garmin watch and cycling computer.
Thankfully, the matter never made it to court. A filing shows that Strava dropped the action “without prejudice”, meaning it could technically revisit it later, but that seems highly unlikely given the fallout. The two companies rely heavily on each other, with Garmin providing the bulk of user activity data that powers Strava’s platform. Without Garmin users uploading daily, Strava’s entire ecosystem would be at risk. Garmin also happens to be one of Strava’s biggest sources of paid subscribers, so taking aim at them always seemed like a bizarre business decision.
There’s speculation that the move was linked to Strava’s reported plans to go public, perhaps in an attempt to highlight its intellectual property portfolio ahead of an IPO. But if that was the goal, it backfired. Suing its closest partner only damaged trust. With its enormous patent library, Garmin was in a position to counter-sue Strava many times over. The reality is that this was a battle Strava was never going to win, and Garmin’s quiet but firm response seems to have forced a swift retreat.
For now, Garmin users that use Strava can go back to business as usual. You can continue uploading rides, tracking runs, and comparing performance without interruption. Strava has already reassured its community that “uninterrupted connectivity” remains a top priority, and Garmin has continued rolling out updates to its own platform without missing a beat.
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