Samsung has persisted in being a comedic brand ever since trolling Apple with campaigns. Now, the company is taking that humor to court as they are suing Oura before it sues them first. You can't blame them for this “proactive approach”, giving Oura’s reputation for aggressively defending its patents in the wearable tech space.
Samsung has asked the court to officially declare that its upcoming Galaxy Ring does not infringe any of Oura's patents. They're also accusing Oura of frequently and broadly claiming patent infringement against all its competitors in the smart ring market — and in the process, slipped on the Galaxy Ring’s release date.
Samsung is bringing the fight to Oura
Legal documents have surfaced detailing Samsung's lawsuit against Oura in the Northern District of California. The lawsuit follows several hints Oura CEO Tom Hale made earlier this year. His statements suggested that eventually, both companies may become entangled in a legal brawl. A week after Samsung announced the Galaxy Ring, Hale told CNBC that Oura would be keeping a close eye on Samsung’s Galaxy Ring for any violations.
“We’ll see whether or not it [the Galaxy Ring] infringes on [Oura’s technology]. And frankly, we’ll take the action that’s appropriate.”
Tom Hale, CEO of Oura Health Oy
In response, Samsung is putting its foot down as a major player in the electronics industry. In particular, they emphasized selling wearable devices since 2013. Notable among their products is the Galaxy Watch and the soon-to-arrive Galaxy Ring. According to the complaint for declaratory judgment, Samsung plans to release the ring in August this year and have since finalized the hardware design in May. The ring’s price will fall between $300 to $350, putting it slightly above the Oura Ring that costs $299 and is now available on Amazon.
Galaxy Ring features traits common to all smart rings, says Samsung
Samsung argues that the Galaxy Ring doesn’t violate any of Oura’s patents, and is designed to behave the same way virtually all smart rings do — and frankly, they're right. Most smart rings have one goal in common; To track health metrics and offer insights. The Oura ring itself monitors sleep stages, heart rate, skin temperature, oxygen saturation, and heart rate variability (HRV).
Considering its size, the ring lacks a display and most of the features you'll find on smartwatches. So, metric monitoring mostly happens on the smartphone you connect it to. From what we know about the Galaxy Ring so far, it'll support those features and add pressure monitoring with aFib detection. The Oura ring doesn't support those features yet.
Both rings support smart device control within Samsung's ecosystem and may require subscription. The major difference is in the battery capacity. Samsung claims that the Galaxy Ring will last up to nine days on a single charge, which is longer than the latest Oura Ring 3’s peak of seven days.
Overall, you'll find similar features on other rings, including the RingConn smart ring, Ultrahuman Ring Air, and the AmazFit Helio Ring. Oura is yet to respond to Samsung's lawsuit with their own counterclaims. But the coming days will shed more light on the case.
