Samsung has filed a lawsuit towards Oura to attempt to head off mental property disputes because the Galaxy Ring launch attracts close to. The go well with notes that Oura has used its patent portfolio to sue smaller wearable tech rivals and has hinted it could do the identical towards the a lot bigger Samsung. Welcome to the bizarre fashionable world of mega-corporations suing startups to stop them from submitting fits of their very own.
“Oura’s actions and public statements demonstrate that Oura will continue asserting patent infringement against other entrants into the U.S. smart ring market, including Samsung,” the lawsuit, first reported on by The Verge, reads. “Oura’s immediate response to the announcement of the Galaxy Ring was to point to the purported strength of its intellectual property portfolio.”
The lawsuit claims the Galaxy Ring doesn’t infringe on Oura’s patents. Nevertheless, in justifying its go well with, it lays out a sample of what it frames as aggressive IP safety by the Finnish startup. It lists instances the place Oura sued smaller rivals like Ultrahuman, Round and RingConn “as soon as, or even before, they entered the U.S. market.”
The doc additionally cites Oura embarking on a media tour instantly following the Galaxy Ring announcement, touting the corporate’s “over 150 patents.” It particularly calls out patent-related quotes revealed by TechCrunch and a CNBC interview the place Oura CEO Tom Hale hinted the corporate might use its IP portfolio towards Samsung.
Samsung’s authorized submitting primarily tries to color Oura as a patent troll, claiming lots of the Finnish firm’s patent disputes have been for options frequent to the complete class of sensible rings, like electronics, sensors, a battery and scores that weigh well being metrics. That method conjures recollections of Samsung’s outdated patent disputes with Apple. A typical theme in these decade-old courtroom battles was Samsung accusing the iPhone maker of holding bogus patents that ought to by no means have been granted as a result of they used apparent applied sciences or strategies shared by the complete trade. (It labored with blended leads to these instances.)
Samsung filed its new lawsuit towards Oura within the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. Oura relies in Finland however has a US wing of its operations based mostly in Delaware, together with places of work in San Francisco with greater than 50 staff.
The lawsuit reveals further element about Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, which the corporate first confirmed off in a render in January earlier than revealing bodily fashions on the Cell World Congress in February. The doc says Samsung solely finalized the Galaxy Ring’s design in “mid-May 2024” and plans to enter mass manufacturing in mid-June.
It provides that the Galaxy Ring will arrive within the US “in or around August of this year,” which aligns with expectations that the corporate will launch it at a summer season Unpacked occasion.