Strava sues Garmin for patent infringement

Strava is suing its longtime partner Garmin, seeking an injunction that would prevent Garmin from selling most of its popular fitness and cycling devices. The lawsuit, filed on September 30, 2025 in federal court in Colorado, alleges that Garmin infringed Strava's patents and violated their 2015 management collaboration agreement (MCA).

Strava specifically targets Garmin's features related to Segments (parts of a route where athletes compare their times) and heatmaps, which show the popularity of certain routes.

Strava claims that Garmin has taken advantage of access to Strava’s technology to “copy it exactly” and release it as its own features on the Garmin Connect platform and devices (including Edge, Forerunner, Fenix and Epix). Because these actions allegedly caused “irreparable harm,” Strava is seeking a permanent ban on the sale of the devices and software solutions in question, as monetary damages are insufficient.

The surprising lawsuit, as DC Rainmaker reports, was likely sparked by a separate API dispute. Strava revealed that Garmin had threatened to cut off data transfers if Strava didn't display the Garmin logo on every activity.

Garmin is likely basing its defense on the fact that some features, such as heat maps, existed on the Garmin Connect platform before Strava's patents were filed.

Despite the legal dispute, data syncing between Garmin and Strava remains intact. Strava has assured that it has no plans to discontinue this capability and hopes that Garmin also values their shared users.