Strava Sues Garmin for Patent Infringement as API Access Hangs in the Balance

The relationship between fitness tech giants Strava and Garmin, once collaborative partners, has officially soured. In a significant escalation of their growing rivalry, Strava filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Garmin this week. The legal action comes as a separate, more public dispute over API access threatens to disrupt the seamless connection millions of athletes rely on to sync their activities.

The Lawsuit: A Fight Over Segments and Leaderboards

The core of the legal battle is a patent licensing agreement established in 2015. This agreement allowed Garmin to integrate Strava's popular "Live Segments" feature into its bike computers, watches, and software. However, the landscape shifted dramatically in March 2025 when Garmin launched Connect+, a premium subscription service that positioned it as a direct competitor to Strava.

According to the suit, filed Tuesday, September 30, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Strava alleges that Garmin is now violating the terms of that 2015 agreement. The complaint centers on Garmin's decision to offer its own "Garmin-branded segments and leaderboards" on its devices, a feature Strava claims infringes on the patents it licensed to the company.

The choice of venue is strategic; while Strava is based in San Francisco and Garmin is headquartered in Kansas, Strava noted in its filing that it sued in Colorado in part because Garmin operates a significant research and development facility in Boulder.

When asked for a comment, a Garmin spokesperson stated that the company does not comment on pending litigation. The court has set a scheduling conference for the case on December 4, 2025.

The Public Dispute: A Looming API Shutdown

While the lawsuit works its way through the legal system, a more immediate threat looms over the user community. In a post on the Strava subreddit on Thursday, Strava’s Chief Product Officer, Matt Salazar, revealed a separate conflict that is not mentioned in the civil complaint.

According to Salazar, the dispute stems from new developer guidelines Garmin issued on July 1, 2025. He stated that these new rules "required the Garmin logo to be present on every single activity post, screen, graph, image, sharing card etc." on third-party platforms like Strava.

Salazar condemned the requirement as "blatant advertising" that would detract from the Strava user experience. "Unfortunately we could not justify to our users complying with the new guidelines," he wrote.

The stakes are incredibly high. According to Salazar's post, Strava has until November 1, 2025, to comply. If they do not, "Garmin has threatened to cut off access to their API, stopping all Garmin activities from being uploaded to Strava.”

Salazar noted that Strava has been trying to negotiate a less intrusive solution with Garmin for the past five months, but "to no avail."

What This Means for Athletes

For the millions of users in the Garmin and Strava ecosystems, the implications are significant. While the patent lawsuit is a corporate battle that will play out over months or years, the API dispute has a hard deadline that is just weeks away.

Key Takeaways:

• A Partnership Ends: The lawsuit signals a definitive end to the cooperative era between the two fitness tech leaders.
• The Lawsuit's Focus: Strava believes Garmin's proprietary segments feature violates a patent agreement for Strava Live Segments.
• The Immediate Threat: The separate API conflict could mean that as of November 1, 2025, the automatic syncing of activities from Garmin devices to Strava could cease to function.

The coming weeks will be critical. As two of the biggest names in cycling and running technology face off in the courtroom and behind the scenes, the user experience that sits at the center of their shared ecosystem hangs in the balance.