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 two companies coexisted constructively for the better part of two decades, with Suunto licensing numerous technologies from Garmin during that span. That’s what makes this lawsuit stand out.
What’s in Garmin’s 218-page countersuit
So how did Garmin respond to all of this? Well, here’s a stand-out quote, spotted by DC Rainmaker: “Like everything else, Suunto predictably looked to copy Garmin’s GPS technology as it fell behind in the marketplace.” That’s pretty blunt language to have on the record.
Garmin’s response goes on to argue that Suunto’s products have historically followed Garmin’s technology roadmap, particularly around GPS features. Garmin filed five counter-patents of its own, and the filing makes clear the company intends to fight.
What’s also worth noting in Garmin’s language is a recognition that the company it’s going after in court isn’t quite the same Suunto it spent two decades working alongside. Garmin seems to understand that it’s fighting Dongguan Liesheng’s lawyers more than it’s fighting Suunto’s people.
What the Suunto/Garmin lawsuit means for you
Patent cases between major tech companies move slowly. Claims get narrowed, filings get amended, and many of these disputes end in cross-licensing agreements rather than verdicts. For athletes and consumers, nothing about your current devices or features changes in the short term.
But stepping back, this case is a useful reminder of just how much intellectual property is layered underneath a modern sports watch. The hardware and software that makes these devices work is deeply patented territory, and when ownership structures change and relationships cool, that IP becomes leverage. As always, if you have any precious data saved to a watch or app, make sure to back it up on your own personal hard drive.
For the full technical breakdown of the filings, Ray Maker’s reporting over at DC Rainmaker is the definitive read.
