What's Going on With Smart Rings?

If you’ve been pursuing past year’s astute ringing drama, you whitethorn person seen that the fig of health-tracking rings you tin bargain has shrunk since October 21, 2025.

As we reported successful August, the US International Trade Commission ruled successful favour of Oura successful a patent lawsuit successful which Oura alleged that its competitors RingConn and Ultrahuman had infringed connected the company’s patent for a astute ringing that tracks wellness and fittingness stats. Oura’s triumph subsequently led to RingConn and Ultrahuman being banned from importing caller rings into the US.

The suit was atrocious quality for some Oura competitors, and particularly Ultrahuman, which had planned to grow its US-based manufacturing installation to conscionable increasing marketplace request (and ostensibly to besides get astir the caller US tariffs). Ultrahuman is distinguished from Oura successful that its astute ringing does not person a subscription; Oura users wage $6 per period to usage its rings.

I caught up concisely with Ultrahuman’s main concern officer, Bhuvan Srinivasan, to clarify the company’s adjacent steps to code the US market, and find retired much astir the latest astute ringing squabbles.

Why Were the Rings Banned?

The ITC ruled that RingConn and Ultrahuman had infringed connected the 178 patent, which protects a circumstantial ringing hardware design—for example, if the ringing has a layered statement with interior and outer components lodging interior electrical components.

If you deliberation this is simply a amazingly wide statement that tin screen … well, beauteous overmuch immoderate astute ring, oregon a wide scope of physics devices successful general, you are correct. Over the past fewer years, galore astute ringing manufacturers person been embroiled successful ineligible disputes implicit this patent.

This has panned retired successful a fewer antithetic ways. In 2024, Oura announced that it had reached a multi-year licensing statement with Circular, the French astute ringing manufacturer, that would let Circular to proceed selling caller rings successful the US. (This determination looks a small little generous erstwhile you see that my two-week investigating play of the Circular Ring 2 was plagued with server and transportation issues.)

Also successful 2024, Samsung attempted to preemptively writer Oura against aboriginal patent infringement claims successful a lawsuit which a justice dismissed. Samsung’s concerns were not unwarranted. In precocious 2025, Oura past filed another ailment against Samsung (the Galaxy Ring), Reebok (the Reebok astute ring), Zepp Health (Amazfit ring), and Nexxbase (the Luna Ring). Oura past reached a licensing statement with RingConn and different competitor, Omate, that would let the institution to proceed selling rings successful the United States.