Samsung, a leader (at the time) in the tech business, where the market for the next gadget can be blown apart by the launch of a new product, is gearing up to launch a new gizmo and hoping that the Galaxy Ring is the star product that it planned to string onto its neck of business. The lawsuit, though, is an interesting kabuki, because it looks like Samsung is preemptively suing in order to block Oura from suing Samsung over the same thing. It’s an interesting case study on what happens between the big and the small dogs, at least in the digital era.
It all points to the fact that there’s something new and different about Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy Ring. That is why Samsung filed the preemptive strike of suing Oura, in an attempt to stop the company from declaring Samsung’s infringement of its intellectual property. It shows the cut-throat side of the tech world: when a new product is announced, lurid tales of intellectual property battles can follow.
Oura holds a formidable IP portfolio in the smart ring market; reports of Samsung’s lawsuit indicate that its legal team knows it. Amid its past history of suing small wearable tech companies after they enter the US market, it also appears to be preparing for Oura’s bold IP protection by way of legal proxy. If the eye of the storm is the absence of any specific reason to buy a smart ring, the litigation surrounding Samsung’s Galaxy Ring could be an exciting prelude.
Samsung’s filings are fun to read. According to the South Korean company, Oura is a firm that might plan on ‘slow-walking’ or even blocking the development of Samsung’s smart ring. If Oura is gearing up for another round of patent lawsuits to halt another start-up’s development, it’s clear from Samsung’s documents that the smart ring maker has Oura in its sights. This narrative evokes the memories of Samsung’s past patent battles, and it insists that the core question of patent law – what is real versus generic – forms the basis of yet another lawsuit between two companies.
In the midst of this legal morass, we learn more details about the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which is almost here. Samsung has settled on a final design, and is gearing up for mass production, with a US launch rumoured to come any month now. The Galaxy Ring is the latest in a series of attempts Samsung has made to expand the spectrum of the wearable technology revolution.
Samsung’s restraining order against Oura, just like most legal fights over intellectual property in the tech sector, is but a proxy war over an industrywide battle, one that happens to have profound implications for innovation in the technological world. How courts rule in this case may set precedents as to how companies – large and small – will try to strike a delicate balance between protecting their innovations while also allowing competition to flourish and push new ideas and devices into the market.
Samsung’s legal stand against Oura is not just the making of a new product, it’s an intervention into a story of technology innovation and intellectual property rights. The story being told between Samsung and Oura is one that reflects the opportunities and pitfalls of the digital age.
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