Peloton has struggled financially in recent months, but it shared a bit of good news on Monday. It announced a settlement agreement with iFit, one of the companies it sued last fall for attempting to “free ride” off of its technology. At the time, Peloton accused its rival of violating up to four of its patents related to on-demand classes.
As part of the settlement, iFit will remove some leaderboard features from its devices. Peloton, meanwhile, has agreed to license a handful of patents from iFit that involve the company’s remote control technologies. The two firms did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement. “The parties are pleased to put the litigations behind them,” Peloton said.
While we will probably never know the factors that led to iFit’s decision to settle, the company probably had the fate of Flywheel in mind. Just before the start of the pandemic, Flywheel announced it would shut down its online classes after losing a patent lawsuit to Peloton. In the aftermath of that announcement, Peloton began a promotion for Flywheel customers where they could trade in their bikes for a refurbished Peloton bike at no cost. At the same time, there are examples of companies successfully challenging Peloton. At the start of the year, Echelon convinced the US Patent and Trademark Office that Peloton shouldn’t have been granted two patents related to its streaming technologies.