Samsung has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Oura to attempt to head off mental property disputes because the Galaxy Ring launch attracts close to. The swimsuit notes that Oura has used its patent portfolio to sue smaller wearable tech opponents and has hinted it could do the identical in opposition to the a lot bigger Samsung. Welcome to the bizarre trendy world of mega-corporations suing startups to forestall 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. Nonetheless, in justifying its swimsuit, 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 opponents 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 printed by TechCrunch and a CNBC interview the place Oura CEO Tom Hale hinted the corporate might use its IP portfolio in opposition to Samsung.
Samsung’s authorized submitting primarily tries to color Oura as a patent troll, claiming most of the Finnish firm’s patent disputes have been for options frequent to the whole class of good rings, like electronics, sensors, a battery and scores that weigh well being metrics. That strategy conjures recollections of Samsung’s outdated patent disputes with Apple.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 whole business. (It labored with blended ends in these instances.)
Samsung filed its new lawsuit in opposition to Oura within the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. Oura is predicated in Finland however has a US wing of its operations primarily based in Delaware, together with workplaces in San Francisco with greater than 50 workers.
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.
