Motive defeats Samsara in ITC ruling

In response to the release and coverage of the ITC ruling, FreightWaves received this statement from Samsara.

“At Samsara, we welcome competition—it drives innovation and ultimately benefits customers. But for too long, Motive has engaged in unethical practices that go beyond healthy competition… ignoring this behavior would be irresponsible, not only for our company but for the industries and the frontline workers we serve. That’s why we took action against Motive.

We filed our litigation in response to Motive’s multi-year campaign, conducted by Motive’s CEO & Co-Founder and senior leaders from Motive’s engineering and product teams, to copy Samsara’s technology. As part of that effort, Motive’s leadership team secretly created fake customer accounts to gain access to Samsara’s systems to study and copy our technology. There are various actions pending against Motive, including claims for unfair competition, trade secret theft, false advertising, breach of contract, and other patent infringement claims. This preliminary ruling in the ITC case does not impact our other ongoing legal actions against Motive, where we will continue to vigorously pursue our claims and ensure that Motive competes fairly and legally. The preliminary ITC ruling remains subject to review by the full Commission, and we are evaluating all options for further review.”

Original story

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a long-anticipated ruling in favor of Motive in a high-profile patent infringement complaint brought by competitor Samsara.

The ITC judge found no patent infringement and cast doubt on the validity of Samsara’s patents.

In a press release sent to FreightWaves Tuesday, Motive’s Chief Legal Officer Shu White said, “Samsara falsely accused Motive of patent infringement in the ITC to stifle competition and disrupt our business. But they failed…Motive remains more focused than ever on our mission to improve the safety of our roads.”

Earlier this year, Omnitracs accused Motive of infringing on four patents related to telematics. A federal jury in the Northern District of California issued a unanimous verdict in favor of Motive in just days, finding no infringement in this case as well.

Samsara’s claims went beyond the ITC; the company also filed lawsuits in California state court and Delaware federal court, and California federal court, accusing Motive of trade secret theft, false advertising, and deceptive business practices.

Motive has denied the allegations.

Samsara’s ITC case sought to ban imports of Motive’s AI dashcams and gateway devices, and in March 2024, Motive filed a countersuit in federal court, alleging that Samsara engaged in unfair competition, false advertising, deceptive trade practices, and abuse of the legal system. The company’s central argument was that Samsara’s strategy was about suppressing a competitor that was outpacing them on product and performance.

The case will now undergo final ITC review with the full commission expected to review and ratify the judge’s ruling. If upheld, Samsara’s attempt to block Motive products from U.S. markets will be formally dismissed.