Fitbit has won a legal ruling that invalidates the Jawbone patents that are at the center of a U.S. International Trade Commission dispute – or which the latter is using to block the former from importing its foreign-manufactured fitness bands to the country.

The Thursday ruling reduced the likelihood of Fitbit facing an import ban from the U.S. agency. But Jawbone will proceed with a separate legal suit against it for stealing important trade secrets, as allowed by ITC judge Dee Lord.

The two are competing entities in the wearable fitness tracker market, with Fitbit leading the race. Part of the battle was claims that Fitbit did corporate espionage, luring Jawbone employees who carried key information on product design and marketing.

In March, Jawbone expanded its list of ex-employees who it believes leaked more than 335,000 sensitive documents to its competitor. Fitbit brushed it off as a desperate act, citing Jawbone’s court loss and being behind in the marketplace.

Denying the charges, Fitbit is focusing its legal attention on fighting the patent claims.

“[Jawbone patents] seek a monopoly on the abstract ideas of collecting and monitoring sleep and other health-related data,” stated part of the ruling of the judge, which deemed other Jawbone patents invalid and some of its claims already withdrawn.

Jawbone, which last year slapped the other company with lawsuits ranging from trade secret to patent infringement claims, said it will appeal the patent ruling. It explained in a statement that the two patents at the center of the ITC ruling are only part of its case against Fitbit – a “small subset” of its overall patent portfolio.

It added that the court has confirmed that in 10 days, Fitbit will face trial on charges of misappropriating trade secrets. The trade secret case is slated for a May 9 trial in Washington.

In 1999, Jawbone started out as an audio technology firm called Aliph. It joined the wearable health tech industry in 2011 by introducing its UP wristband.

Fitbit entered the game in 2009 with its first connected health wearable device, and has surpassed Jawbone’s performance basing on product recognition and market share.

Photo: Denis Kortunov | Flickr

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