Imagine making a big mess, only to realize it was for naught. A judge has dismissed Samsung’s attempt at striking before the iron’s hot. Last summer, before Samsung had even released the Galaxy Ring to the public, the company filed a lawsuit asking a judge to proclaim its business didn’t infringe on any patents, specifically, patents related to the Oura Ring. This week, the judge ruled this as malarkey (not a direct quote), and Samsung has until late April to appeal the decision with an amended complaint.
What does all this legal back-and-forth mean? Samsung struck before Oura, the company behind the Oura Ring, could sniff through its patents and get litigious. Samsung figured that since Oura is known for going after its competition on standard wellness patents—it’s gone after lower-cost brands like Ringconn and Circular—it would come after Samsung, too. Considering Oura’s business is squarely the smart ring and the accompanying ecosystem, it makes sense.
Samsung had asked the judge to file a declaratory judgment lawsuit in the Northern District of California court, where it filed the suit. This “judgment” would indicate that Samsung had not copied any of Oura’s patents, like one for “assessing a readiness score of a user” and a “method for manufacturing thereof.” Samsung claims that Oura had a “pattern of indiscriminate assertion of patent infringement against any and all competitors in the smart ring market” as the reason for its lawsuit. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguínp ultimately threw out the lawsuit.
Samsung was trying to strike against Oura before Oura could strike against it. It’s lawsuit ping-pong, with Samsung starting it out in Northern California, where Oura is headquartered, to get a declaration filed before Oura attempts to bring the fight to Samsung’s turf in Texas, where it has slightly more reign.
Ultimately, the power these companies have is inherently related to how much money they have to throw at lawsuits, even before they materialize. Oura may not have as much manufacturing prowess as Samsung, but it’s not doing too badly in securing the funding it needs to continue. It helps, too, that Oura is a good product. It’s good enough that Samsung is afraid it’ll come for its business, even if it is relatively minor.