Before the better-known Strava lawsuit against Garmin grabbed headlines last year, Suunto had actually sued Garmin first. In September, Suunto and their parent company Dongguan Liesheng quietly filed suit against Garmin over five patent infringement allegations. Garmin recently responded with a 218-page countersuit that reads less like a legal filing and more like Garmin decided it was done being polite.
Why did Suunto sue Garmin?
The five patents in the initial lawsuit from Suunto had to do with the following features:
Golf shot tracking using an accelerometer to detect impact
Respiration rate derived from an optical heart rate sensor
Slot mode antenna design in wearable devices
Antenna placement in a wrist-worn device
Additional wrist-worn antenna design concepts
Three of the five are antenna-related, one covers physiological metrics, and one is about golf shot detection. As patent lawsuits go, Suunto’s original filing was relatively standard in tone; Garmin’s response was not. Suunto and Garmin are not, historically, enemies. The
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