Wahoo and Zwift settle patent suit

According to industry sources at Bicycle Retailer, Wahoo Fitness and Zwift are buddies again and Wahoo is no longer pursuing its patent infringement suit against Zwift.

Court filings show that both parties are asking the court to dismiss the suit, effectively ending legal action. At the same time, each side will pay its own legal fees so far.

Background: Wahoo alleged last October that Zwift’s Hub Trainer manufactured by Jet Black infringed its patents. Jet Black also had a nearly identical product marketed as Volt. Consequently, Wahoo started proceedings against both companies. A rapid settlement between Wahoo and Jet Black resulted in the latter agreeing to only sell its Volt product in Australia and not in Europe/USA.

Take Out

There will be a ‘winner’ but we might not get to officially know who it is. I guess we have to wait for more info to come to light to find out what really happened.

I would imagine that neither side felt they had a slam dunk case and hence have probably settled in some way. Perhaps Zwift will pay a licensing fee for some of the tech/methods it uses in the Hub trainer? Perhaps Zwift will help Wahoo by returning to reselling Wahoo Trainers? Perhaps Wahoo just backed down from the possibility of losing its patents? Perhaps Zwift backed down from the possibility of a near-total loss of revenue from hardware sales?

More on how this story developed on dcrainmaker.com