Wahoo Sues Over Zwift Hub Patent Infringement

The number one bike tech company in the whole world (ed: ?), Wahoo, has begun legal action against Zwift over alleged patent infringements in the latter’s newly-released Zwift Hub indoor smart trainer.

It filed documents in the US District Court for the District of Delaware on October 3. Ohh, filing documents. Wahoo believes three patents related to its smart trainers have been infringed upon.

“But Zwift just rebadged a JetBlack Volt trainer,” we hear you say. So did Wahoo: they’ve filed the same lawsuit against JetBlack. With the JetBlack Volt available for several years, it’s somewhat hard to see this as anything beyond Wahoo becoming flustered in the wake of the Zwift Hub release, which offers comparable performance to a similar, but twice as expensive, trainer by Wahoo. The Zwift Hub’s competitive pricing is due to Zwift’s desire to make getting on Zwift more accessible, rather than being driven by making a profit on the device itself.

“Designing and manufacturing technology products is complex and expensive,” says the lawsuit. Oh dear. “Allowing cheap, copycat products to sell illegally in the marketplace discourages investment from legitimate companies leading to stagnating innovation and lower product quality.”

Wahoo believes the Zwift Hub and JetBlack Volt are identical internally to its own KICKR Core. Which, if true, the lawsuit is fair enough really.

How will this one turn out? Zwift will probably have to pay some money. Just don’t recall our Zwift Hub, it only just arrived.