Skip to main content

Fitbit can keep operating in U.S. after judge rules it did not steal trade secrets

It looks like you’ll still be able to buy Fitbit fitness trackers in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Jawbone has failed to block Fitbit from operating in the U.S. after an International Trade Commission judge ruled that Fitbit has not stolen trade secrets from Jawbone.

In July of last year, Jawbone accused Fitbit of stealing trade secrets and classified information. If Fitbit had indeed stolen trade secrets, the ITC would have been able to block Fitbit from importing its products for sale in the U.S. In the end, the judge found that “no party has been shown to have misappropriated any trade secret.”

Recommended Videos

Jawbone alleged that Fitbit infringed on six patents and poached employees who were privy to confidential information about Jawbone’s business. That information included plans, supply chains, and technical details about Jawbone products. Two of the patents were eventually withdrawn from the suit; the four that remained were invalidated by the judge.

“We are pleased with the ITC’s initial determination rejecting Jawbone’s trade secret claims. We greatly appreciate the ALJ’s time and diligent work on this case, said Fitbit CEO and co-founder James Park in a statement. “From the outset of this litigation, we have maintained that Jawbone’s allegations were utterly without merit and nothing more than a desperate attempt by Jawbone to disrupt Fitbit’s momentum to compensate for their own lack of success in the market. Our customers can be assured that we remain fully committed to creating innovative products that consumers love, and that we are excited about the pipeline of new products coming out this year.”

Of course, Jawbone doesn’t agree with this, and the case itself is far from over. In fact, Jawbone intends to seek review of the decision made by the courts. Here’s Jawbone’s full statement.

“We intend to seek review of today’s ruling before the full Commission. The case in the ITC involved a very small subset of Jawbone’s trade secrets asserted against Flextronics and Fitbit because of the limited jurisdiction of the ITC. Jawbone is continuing to pursue its much broader trade secret case against Fitbit, which is headed to a jury trial in California state court. The California court already has granted a preliminary injunction and rejected Fitbit’s efforts to dismiss the case. Jawbone is confident it will prevail when the full scope of its claims is heard by the jury.”

Fitbit has grown to be the largest make of wrist-based fitness trackers in the U.S., having sold a whopping 5.7 million devices in the second quarter of this year alone. Not being able to sell its products in the country would be a massive blow to its business. Of course, Jawbone, which makes the UP fitness trackers, isn’t a small company either. It has been losing market share of late — to the point that it is no longer in the top five fitness tracker manufacturers.

While Fitbit has won this particular battle, the war between the two companies may not be over. Jawbone won a separate trade case against Fitbit on July 19, when a judge found that three patents owned by Fitbit were invalid. Fibit has since asked the trade commission to review the ruling.

Updated on 08-24-2016 by Christian de Looper: Added full statement from both companies.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
How does Garmin measure stress, and is it really accurate?
Garmin Vivomove Sport dial close up. Credits: Garmin official.

Garmin watches are known for their robust activity tracking, but that's not all these fitness watches can do. Over the years, the company has been adding wellness features to its lineup of watches. These new health-focused metrics allow people to analyze their fitness and identify outside factors affecting their performance. One such factor is stress, which is something Garmin watches actively measures.
But you may be wondering—exactly how does Garmin measure stress? In this article, we break down how Garmin measures stress and delve into the accuracy of this metric. Should you trust your stress score? Read on to find out.

Is Garmin's stress score accurate?

Read more