Last June, Samsung made a surprising move against smart ring maker Oura. The tech giant filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment saying that its then-unreleased Galaxy Ring didn’t infringe on five Oura patents. Now, a judge has officially dismissed Samsung’s case, saying the company acted prematurely without concrete evidence that Oura planned to sue.
In its suit, Samsung alleged that Oura had a history of filing patent suits against competitors like Ultrahuman, RingConn, and Circular for “features common to virtually all smart rings,” such as sensors, batteries, and common health metrics. It also listed public statements from Oura around the time Samsung announced the Galaxy Ring, including ones preemptively shared with publications, including The Verge, highlighting Oura’s 270 pending patent applications and 130 registered trademarks. Oura CEO Tom Hale had also noted the smart ring maker would monitor the Galaxy Ring and “take action that’s appropriate.”
“Samsung’s complaint fails to allege any action by Oura directed at Samsung,” said Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, noting that Oura’s public statements alone weren’t enough to establish the smart ring maker had Samsung in its sights. The judge also noted that of the statements Samsung provided, only three referenced the Galaxy Ring and none explicitly threatened Samsung directly.
“The dismissal confirms what Oura has maintained from the beginning: Samsung’s lawsuit lacked a legitimate legal or factual basis,” says Jasjit Vidwan, partner at ArentFox Schiff and Oura legal counsel. “Samsung was called on their attempt to battle infringement in a court of their choosing without the existence of any actual dispute.”
A Samsung spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Patent wars are common among gadget makers, and although it’s now dismissed, Samsung’s lawsuit was notable in a few ways. For starters, by jumping the gun, Samsung’s suit confirmed unannounced features in a then-unreleased product. Second, it’s less common to see companies try to preemptively block future patent infringement cases against a product that hasn’t even launched. If anything, the whole thing confirmed Samsung’s serious interest in smart rings, a gadget category that has, so far, been relatively niche.
