It was possible that the case of Strava versus Garmin could have taken years to resolve; but it only took three weeks. San Francisco-based Strava has one of the biggest fitness apps on the market and has over 150 million users. Garmin, a Kansas-based corporation, is the maker of the worlds’s leading fitness watches, which are known for their long battery life, heart rate monitoring, and reliable GPS location. On Tuesday, Oct 21, Strava filed paperwork to voluntarily dismiss the case entirely, according to fitness-tech guru DC Rainmaker. Here’s what happened.
The Strava lawsuit made two major claims: first, Strava said that Garmin infringed on its Segments patent (U.S. 9,116,922, filed 2011, granted 2015) and its Heatmap/Popularity Routing patents (U.S. 9,297,651 and 9,778,053, filed 2014–2016). Second, Strava argued that Garmin breached a 2015 Master Cooperation Agreement (MCA) that set limits on how Garmin could expand its own “Garmin Segments” alongside Strava Live Segments.
Strava’s chief product officer, Matt Salazar, clarified the lawsuit in a Reddit post and wrote that Garmin is requiring the social fitness app to display the Garmin logo on every workout uploaded by a Garmin user. Salazar wrote that Strava is actively fighting to block this for two main reasons:
- “These new guidelines actively degrade the Strava user experience (and the other 150 million+ athletes). We already provide attribution for every data partner, but Garmin wants to use Strava and every other partner as an advertising platform,” Salazar wrote.
- “If you recorded an activity on your watch, we think that is your data. We believe you should be able to freely transfer or upload that data without requiring logos to be displayed alongside it or have that data be used as an advertisement to sell more watches,” Salazar wrote.
Garmin has remained silent throughout the lawsuit, adhering to company guidelines. The corporation is a major player in the wearables market, offering some of the best fitness-focused products available in 2025. On the contrary, Strava relies on third-party wearables in order to gather the data necessary for its apps and services to work, according to Android Police. DC Rainmaker confirmed this and wrote, “Garmin’s data fuels massive portions of Strava’s platform from a route standpoint. If Garmin were to shut off that connection, it would almost immediately spell the end of Strava.” However, none of that is going to happen now, and users of Garmin watches and Strava fitness apps can breathe easy.
The quick end of the lawsuit that Strava filed against Garmin came to an end behind the scenes and has some people wondering why it happened in the first place. Garmin clearly came out as the winner, and Strava made waves with one of its most important business partners. Strava is not the only company that designs fitness apps, which Garmin knows. In the end, the two have seemed to work things out, and all the data-heads in the world can keep tracking their workouts with ease.
Strava is social media. Garmin makes hardware that allows you to navigate the world. Big difference.