Strava filed lawsuit against Garmin, demanding it stop selling all devices

Strava has filed a lawsuit against Garmin over two key features, including Segments and Heatmaps. Strava has claimed that Garmin has stopped selling plenty of sales of its devices. It filed the lawsuit on September 30 in the US District Court for the District of Colorado.

Starva demanded that Garmin is violating patents, as reported by DC Rainmaker. In 2011, Strava’s Segment patent was filed, and later, in 2015, it was granted. The patent significantly covers GPS segments with time-based performance comparisons. 

In 2014, Garmin introduced its own Segments on its Edge 1000 bike computer, and extended the feature to its other devices over the remainder of the year. Then, Garmin partnered with Strava to bring Strava Live Segments to Garmin devices under a deal, MCA (Master Cooperation Agreement).

As part of the deal, Garmin agreed not to show Strava and Garmin Segments at the same time. Now, in the lawsuit, Strava claims that Garmin has expanded beyond the MCA agreement protocols, learning from the Strava implementation and using it as a blueprint to build a challenging system.

The second part of the lawsuit relates to the heatmap feature. Strava cites two patents, which were filed in 2014 and 2016. which covers generating a map that reveals where other users work out based on activity data. 

Strava is claiming Garmin’s heatmap display violates plenty of Strava’s patents. However, DC Rainmaker notes Garmin launched heatmaps in its Garmin Connect platform as early as 2013. 

As a result of these patent violations, Strava claims that it has suffered damages, including losing opportunities and revenues, and unjust profits to Garmin. 

Strava’s lawsuit claims that it provided Garmin with written notice of violation in June and July of 2025, which followed differences between the two companies.

In 2024, Strava introduced API changes that disrupted third-party apps, including Garmin. Strava’s lawsuit is asking for a permanent solution to stop Garmin from selling devices that include Segments and heatmap features. This will cover most of Garmin’s smartwatches and Edge bike computers. 

Strava told DC Rainmaker that it does not have any intention to disrupt the ability of Garmin users to sync data with Strava. Further, Strava added that it hopes that Garmin values its shared users in the same way.