The fitness tracking giants are squaring off in court over patents, heatmaps, and segments – and it’s messy and complicated.
*Well, not every mountain biker – I don’t have a Strava account or a Garmin device.
If you’ve been out riding this week and missed the drama, buckle up: Strava has decided to sue Garmin as reported first by DC Rainmaker, demanding they stop selling virtually every fitness device they make. Yes, you read that right. The company that relies on Garmin users for the majority of its data has just bitten the hand that feeds it.
What’s Actually Happening?
On October 2nd, Strava filed a lawsuit in Colorado claiming Garmin has infringed on two key patents: one covering segments, and another covering heatmaps. They’re also alleging that Garmin violated a 2015 cooperation agreement between the two companies.
The lawsuit demands that Garmin:
- Stop selling all fitness watches and cycling computers with segment or heatmap features (which is basically everything)
- Remove these features from Garmin Connect
- Pay damages for “lost revenue and business opportunities”
For mountain bikers who rely on Garmin Edge units or Fenix watches synced to Strava, this sounds like a nightmare scenario. But before you panic, let’s dig into what’s really going on.
The Heatmap Patent: A Shaky Foundation
Strava claims they invented heatmaps for fitness activities. But the problem with that is it’s not true..
Garmin actually launched heatmaps in Garmin Connect back in early 2013 – a full year and a half before Strava even filed their patent application in December 2014.
Third-party developers were creating heatmaps from Strava’s own publicly available data as early as 2012-2013, before Strava had their own heatmap feature. Strava didn’t launch their personal heatmaps until September 2013.
So how did Strava get a patent for something that already existed? Welcome to the wonderful world of software patents, where the US Patent Office sometimes grants protection for concepts that have clear prior art. Legal experts suggest this patent could easily be invalidated in court – similar to when Wahoo tried to sue Zwift a few years back and the judge essentially said their patents should never have been granted.
The Segments Saga: A Decade-Old Grudge
The segments patent is more interesting, but equally bizarre. Here’s the timeline:
- 2009: Strava launches with user-created segments
- 2011: Strava files a patent for segments (two years after going public with the feature)
- June 2014: Garmin launches Garmin Segments on the Edge 1000
- April 2015: Garmin and Strava sign a cooperation agreement to implement Strava Live Segments on Garmin devices
- July 2015: Strava Live Segments go live on Garmin units
But, who the hell actually uses Garmin Segments? Everyone wanted Strava Segments, which is why the two companies partnered in the first place. Garmin kept their own segment feature alive as an alternative for non-paying Strava users, but it’s been a ghost town for a decade.
So why is Strava suddenly upset about something that happened ten years ago and has been a non-issue ever since? That’s where things get interesting.
The Real Story: It’s About Money and Attribution
DC Rainmaker has dug deep into this story and has a compelling theory that we can’t fault…
In July 2025, Garmin announced new API guidelines requiring partners like Strava to provide attribution when displaying data from Garmin devices. Essentially, Garmin wants a small text label like “Garmin Edge 1040” near the activity data – similar to how Google Maps shows its data source.
Strava’s Chief Product Officer went on Reddit claiming Garmin demanded their logo appear on “every single activity post, screen, graph, image, sharing card etc.” But that’s not quite accurate. Garmin’s actual guidelines show the logo is optional – simple text attribution is fine.
The irony? Strava requires the exact same thing from apps using their API. After last year’s API fiasco where Strava forced partner apps to delete millions of activities and restricted data usage, they’re now complaining about having to follow similar rules themselves.
What This Means for Mountain Bikers
Both companies have stated they don’t intend to disrupt users’ ability to sync data during the lawsuit. Strava says they hope Garmin won’t retaliate, and Garmin has simply said they don’t comment on pending litigation.
The reality is that Strava needs Garmin far more than Garmin needs Strava. Garmin users make up the majority of paying Strava subscribers and provide the bulk of the data that makes Strava’s heatmaps and route recommendations valuable. Without Garmin data flowing in, Strava’s platform would hemorrhage users and value.
Garmin, on the other hand, has been building out Garmin Connect as a comprehensive platform. They recently launched Garmin Connect+ with features like Trails+ that directly compete with Strava’s paid offerings. While Garmin Connect’s social features have never taken off, the company doesn’t rely on social networking for revenue – they sell hardware.
The IPO Angle
Strava is preparing for an IPO in 2026, and this lawsuit has all the hallmarks of a pre-IPO strategy to strengthen their intellectual property portfolio and demonstrate to investors that they can defend their competitive position.
The problem? They’ve picked a fight with a company that:
- Virtually never loses patent disputes
- Has thousands of patents (compared to Strava’s 26)
- Could easily countersue for patent infringement
- Could theoretically cut off API access and cripple Strava’s data flow
It’s a high-risk gamble that could backfire spectacularly.
The Mountain Biker’s Perspective
For those of us who actually ride bikes rather than manage tech companies, this is frustrating. Both Garmin and Strava have been making increasingly user-hostile decisions lately:
- Strava keeps raising prices, paywalling features, and alienating API partners
- Garmin has been pushing Garmin Connect+ subscriptions and restricting third-party integrations
Neither company seems particularly focused on what users actually want: reliable devices, useful features, and seamless integration between platforms.
The good news is that your Garmin will keep working, and your rides will keep syncing to Strava (for now). The bad news is that this legal battle will cost both companies money that could have been spent improving their products, and those costs will likely be passed on to users through higher subscription fees or device prices.
The Verdict (So Far)
This lawsuit appears to be less about protecting genuine innovation and more about corporate posturing ahead of Strava’s IPO. The timing is suspicious, and the whole situation has the smell of a company trying to extract concessions from a partner they depend on.
For mountain bikers, the best outcome would be a quick settlement that lets both companies get back to focusing on what matters: helping us track our rides, find new trails, and share our adventures with mates.
In the meantime, keep riding, keep uploading your activities, and maybe keep an eye on alternative platforms like Komoot (recently acquired by tech co. Bending Spoons) or Ride with GPS – just in case this corporate drama escalates into something that actually affects users.
After all, we’re here to ride bikes, not watch tech companies squabble over who invented the digital equivalent of, “that steep bit on the trail where everyone tries to go fast.”
Kudos for the amazingly detailed investigation and analysis by DC Rainmaker which first broke this story.
Don’t you just set up the Strava/Connect integration and star the route on Strava?
I’d been wondering if I’d been missing something, I’d never found trailforks to be even nearly useful.
FWIW we’re using Spond for club rides. It does invites, registrations, attachments, photos, calendar and so on. Then it’s up to folk which of the other platforms they want to record with/upload to. We certainly have folk who don’t use/don’t want to use either Strava or Connect.
Isn’t that the point of connect IQ?
there’s third party apps and data fields galore available to download on there.
You can, but Garmin (and I assume wahoo) will for example overlay all the other people who’ve joined the group ride on the map so you can see if people are a no-show or just around the corner, if they’ve been dropped and taken a wrong turn, stopped with a mechanical etc.
Yea, that’s basically how we as a club use strava, there’s a handful of members that don’t but I suspect at this stage we’d have more eye rolling with yet another app than staying put.
Strava (not surprisingly) drops its lawsuit against Garmin.
Strava Drops Lawsuit Against Garmin!