Jawbone UP2

After a string of lawsuits that Jawbone has filed against Fitbit, the latter has filed one of its own, suing Jawbone and its subsidiary, BodyMedia, in Delaware District Court, for alleged patent infringement.

Fitbit is suing Jawbone over alleged infringement of three patents, two of which were issued in May 2015 and a third that was issued in December 2014. The two from May 2015 were “Notifications On A User Device Based On Activity Detected By An Activity Monitoring Device,” and “Biometric Monitoring Device With Heart Rate Measurement Activated By A Single User Gesture." The third, issued at the end of last year, was "Methods for Detecting and Recording Physical Activity of Person.”

The lawsuit claims Jawbone's UP Move, UP24, UP2, UP3, and UP4 as well as the UP software interface infringe on these patents.

The Fitbit-Jawbone lawsuit feud first began in May, just a few weeks after Fitbit filed for an IPO. In that suit, Jawbone alleged that Fitbit poached employees who downloaded sensitive data about Jawbone before leaving the company. In the filing Jawbone describes one of its former employees as requesting a meeting with company executives to better understand the company’s future strategy and get a look at prototype devices for future products. Weeks before leaving to join Fitbit, she then downloaded the presentation, which Jawbone said was its “Playbook for the Future” onto her personal computer.

In June, Jawbone filed a second lawsuit, this time Jawbone sued Fitbit over alleged infringement of three patents Jawbone obtained when it acquired BodyMedia in 2013. BodyMedia’s extensive IP catalogue was one of the key drivers of that acquisition.

And in July, a report emerged that Jawbone is trying to get the US International Trade Commission to block Fitbit’s imports into the US based on the same complaints that form the basis of the two lawsuits against Fitbit. And towards the end of August, the ITC confirmed that it planned to investigate Jawbone's claims, according to Legal Newsline.