Last June, Samsung took an unexpected step against smart ring maker Oura. The tech giant filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that its unreleased Galaxy Ring does not infringe on five of Oura’s patents. Now, the judge has officially dismissed Samsung‘s lawsuit, saying that the company acted prematurely without concrete evidence that Oura planned to file a lawsuit.
In its lawsuit, Samsung argued that Oura had already filed patent lawsuits against competitors such as Ultrahuman, RingConn, and Circular for “features common to virtually all smart rings,” such as sensors, batteries, and general health metrics. The lawsuit also lists the company’s statements that Oura planned to file a lawsuit against Samsung. It also lists Oura’s public statements made at the time Samsung announced the Galaxy Ring, including those that were distributed in advance to publications including The Verge, which referred to Oura’s 270 pending patent applications and 130 registered trademarks. Oura CEO Tom Hale also noted that the smart ring maker will monitor the Galaxy Ring and “take appropriate action.”
“Samsung’s complaint does not allege any action by Oura against Samsung,” said Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, noting that Oura’s public statements alone are not enough to prove that the smart ring maker had Samsung in its sights. The judge also noted that out of all the statements provided by Samsung, only three were related to the Galaxy Ring, and none of them contained direct threats against Samsung.
“The dismissal of the case confirms what Oura has argued from the beginning: Samsung’s lawsuit had no legitimate legal or factual basis,” said Jaszczyt Widwan, partner at ArentFox Schiff and legal counsel to Oura. “Samsung was accused of attempting to fight infringement in a court of its choice without any factual dispute.”
A Samsung spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Patent wars are commonplace among gadget makers, and while the lawsuit against Samsung is now closed, it was notable in several ways. First, by jumping to conclusions, Samsung’s lawsuit confirmed the existence of unannounced features in a product that had not yet been released. Secondly, it is not often that companies try to block future patent infringement cases against a product that has not even entered the market yet. In any case, all of this has confirmed Samsung’s serious interest in smart rings, a category of gadgets that has been relatively niche until now.
