Samsung isn’t waiting for Oura to hit it with patent suits. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Samsung isn’t waiting around for Oura to file any patent claims over its forthcoming smart ring. Instead, it’s preemptively filed its own suit against Oura, seeking a “declaratory judgment” that states the Galaxy Ring doesn’t infringe on five Oura patents.
The suit alleges that Oura has a pattern of filing patent suits against competitors based on “features common to virtually all smart rings.” In particular, the suit references sensors, electronics, batteries, and scores based on metrics gathered from sensors. The case lists instances in which Oura sued rivals like Ultrahuman, Circular, and RingConn, sometimes before they even entered the US market.
For those reasons, Samsung says in the suit that it anticipates being the target of…