Strava backs down on Garmin branding lawsuit - your rides and runs still sync, for now

Runners and riders have been watching the recent Garmin-Strava fallout with bated breath. After Strava filed a lawsuit in early October over patents covering segments and heatmaps, the fear was that Garmin uploads stop landing in Strava, which would be chaos for a lot of people.

However, the latest update is a positive one. While the lawsuit is far from other, Garmin users can breathe, for now. In a statement sent to TechRadar, on Thursday, Strava confirmed it’ll follow Garmin’s stricter attribution rules, which means more prominent device branding on activities, and - crucially - it’s keeping the Garmin connection live. The statement reads:

"While we don’t agree with the extensive branding Garmin is forcing, uninterrupted connectivity for the subset of our community that uses Garmin remains our top priority, and we have also decided that we will give similar attribution to all of our device partners going forward to be fair.

"Our aim is to make branding as unintrusive as possible, and we believe it is the right thing to do in light of the mandatory changes that Garmin is asking all developers to implement by November 1st."

What can we expect to change?

So what next? In practical terms, we can expect to see clearer credits to the device that recorded your activity. If you run with a Garmin watch or ride with a Garmin head unit, Strava will show that more visibly on your posts.

According to a post by Gadgets & Wearables, Strava told developers that apps using Garmin-originated data via the Strava API must follow Garmin’s branding requirements from 1 November, and it’ll build similar attribution for Apple, Samsung and others so it isn’t a one-off.

This is quite the climb-down after a very public wobble. Strava’s chief product officer was quick to take to Reddit and complain about Garmin’s demands, and it backfired - hard. In what looked like a cry for sympathy, the post garnered no upvotes, with commenters accusing Strava of being hypocritical.

Strava's message now is more measured - to keep the Garmin data sync stable, make the branding as unintrusive as possible, and avoid breaking millions of daily uploads while the lawyers do their thing.

While nothing big is changing just yet, if the case moves forward, it could reshape how segment leaderboards and routing suggestions work on Garmin devices.

The lawsuit still looms

None of the recent happenings means the court case goes away. Strava is still accusing Garmin of infringing patents related to segments and route “heatmaps”, and of breaching a cooperation deal from 2015.

Garmin is yet to comment on the debacle, and it might not ever. Such legal fights can take a while to run their course and they often end in licensing or a quiet settlement rather than anything explosive like product bans.

For everyday users, though, the good news is that your Garmin data will continue to flow into Strava as normal, and you’ll start seeing clearer device logos on activities across the board. The bad news is that this might not be for long. The legal tussle carries on in the background and the outcome is far from concluded.