Samsung Sues Oura Preemptively To Block Smart Ring Patent Claims

An anonymous reader shares a report: 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 an Oura suit.

Need competition

[SmaryJerry]

Hate patents, but Oura was actually the first ring I had heard of making those. Still we need competition in the space. It's too bad Oura rings cost so much, as well as require a subscription now. My oura ring battery has failed a couple times, most recently post warranty and it's just not worthwhile to buy a new ring for a couple hundred dollars every couple years.

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[thegarbz]

Hate patents, but Oura was actually the first ring I had heard of making those.

While patents in general drive innovation, there's no place for patents which are "Does X but smaller". The Oura ring is good, but it's not innovative. In fact it was a completely natural progression from miniaturisation.

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[arglebargle_xiv]

And in particular "has a pattern of filing patent suits against competitors based on 'features common to virtually all smart rings'" describes the standard (ab)use of the patent system, if you substitute absolutely any technology you can name for the current "smart rings". That's how you use patents, not to protect your ideas but to make sure no-one else can do the blindingly obvious and thereby compete with you.

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[ewibble]

While patents in general drive innovation

Prove it, not just conjecture but actual peer reviewed studies that show this given 2 systems one without patents and one with innovation is increased. Not just say look we have patents and we have innovations clearly patents help innovation.Also nothing that measures innovation by the number of patents, I don't think they are the same thing.

I agree that they provide a motivation for innovation, but the also provide a mechanism to stop other people innovating, and once that innovation is patented it is much

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[markdavis]

>"While patents in general drive innovation, there's no place for patents which are "Does X but smaller". The Oura ring is good, but it's not innovative."

^^ This

Having, for example, a novel/new/creative/better component to measure body temperature should be patentable. Being the first to put it on a phone, a watch, a ring, a bracelet, a sock, a shoe, a glove, an earring- that is NOT innovative and should not be patentable. It is just a logical progression.

It would be like having a patent on every objec

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[Mascot]

Hate patents, but Oura was actually the first ring I had heard of making those.

Did you mean company, not ring? Because that sentence makes little sense to me.

Reading the summary, it seems their patents are the typical vague ones that should never have been granted to begin with. It's one thing to patent e.g. specific non-obvious implementations needed for something to work in a ring, it's another to basically patent "a ring with a battery and sensors" as a generic thing. I have no idea why the US patent office keeps granting patents like that.

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[2TecTom]

Me, I wouldn't touch either. Open standards or nothing. I'm never going to support classism, economic corruption or incompetence. That's what got us all in this mess. Principles and ethics matter.

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[smooth wombat]

Principles and ethics matter.

Are we to presume from your statement that you do not buy from Amazon or any product made in China?

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[2TecTom]

Are we to presume from your statement that you do not buy from Amazon or any product made in China?

You are exactly correct, I do not. When it is unavoidable, I buy such stuff used at a thrift store. I won't be a part of the problem if I can at all help it.

We all have a responsibility not to participate. Non-violent non-cooperation is the key to effective change.

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[backslashdot]

That's what the lawsuit will sort out. Maybe they weren't first, or copied someone else's idea. Also, being the first to bring something to market shouldn't give you a decades long monopoly. If that were the case every car would be a Benz and every cell phone a Motorola.

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[anoncoward69]

There shouldn't be patents on the general idea of a "smart ring" The fact that Samsung is preemptively suing shows just how absurd these patents likely are

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[unrtst]

Anyone remember the Amazon Echo Loop smart ring? It was announced in 2019, but it's discontinued.
Product: https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Lo... [amazon.com]
A random review: https://www.techradar.com/revi... [techradar.com]

Oura rings kickstarter was in 2015, and their Ring 2 released in 2021.

Unlike the Oura Ring, the Echo Loop had a mic and speaker to integrate with Alexa. They're pretty much entirely different products (Oura has sensors and logs info and such, Echo Loop is kind of a bluetooth headset on your finger and has little to no sen

Back in my day the FBI had to sit in a van

[slack_justyb]

smart rings

Ugh. Can we all agree to not give even more data to companies who then freely give it various Governments? I get it, we want to track health and all, but all of this telemetry, it eventually ends up in the hands of people we wouldn't freely give this information to, and likely we wouldn't hand it over for a price. But add in a middleman and for some reason people are okay with it.

That's just my two cents. I know, it's offtopic here, but can we all just please collectively NOT give people reasons to pate

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[Baron_Yam]

I just want the legal right to stab people who design products with connectivity requirements that are not necessary for the advertised features but suspiciously useful for data mining my life.

Why shouldn't I be able to buy a smart watch or ring or whatever and expect it to keep everything locally on my phone?

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[sarren1901]

You clearly are not the target audience. Nor am I. I had to look up what a smart ring even was before posting. Just another piece of tech trash that sends data to some company to monetize but not before you send them money to allow this to happen.

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[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

You at least bothered to look it up, the Anonymous Coward [slashdot.org] posting above did not even bother doing that. Something else we have in common though, a complete disinterest in this type of product.

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[thegarbz]

I get it, we want to track health and all, but all of this telemetry, it eventually ends up in the hands of people we wouldn't freely give this information to

It's a strange situation to be in to demand secrecy rather than protection. I have no problem giving this health data out, but then I live in a place where companies can get royally fucked for using it against me. Resting heart rate 51bpm, steps since midnight: 6950 and probably won't exceed 7100 today. It's a few largely meaningless stats for anyone other than me, not a dick pick.

The reality is most people would gladly hand this data over to anyone and would jump at the opportunity to get paid for it.

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[kellin]

I got the cheap model as an incentive from my company a few weeks ago and even though my phone tracks my steps and calorie burn, I found the sleep stuff to be rather interesting. It's helped me to discover the best means of getting enough deep sleep every night.

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[spaceman375]

You deserve upvotes for being the only positive comment so far. Not to mention the only one to claim actual first-hand knowledge by actually using one. I bought one a few years ago, and its simple, but good at what it does. The tech is even better now, so I want an upgrade with more sensors, doesn't have to be the same brand.

Would love to give you points. Was getting 15 mod points weekly for a couple years, but one troll post some 8 or 9 months ago ended any points at all so far, even tho my karma is "ex

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[angel'o'sphere]

Mod points seem pretty random since years.
Ten years ago I basically had points every day.
Now I have points 3 days in a row, and then no points 3 weeks.
BTW. I can meta-mod myself. Isn't that funny?

Smart Rings are dumb

[Plumpaquatsch]

Smart Thimbles will be the hot shit in 2 years. Mark my words.

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[anoncoward69]

Where's my smart cock ring? Can measure the strength of your erection and you'll never miss a notification when things start buzzing down there.

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[anoncoward69]

LMAO, your ass would look like Goatse by the time I was done with you.