Both Motive and Samsara share wins and losses in legal battle
Key takeaways
- The U.S. ITC reaffirmed its 2025 ruling that sided with Motive, confirming no patent infringement by Motive against Samsara.
- An arbitrator awarded damages to Samsara over a Motive-funded study, leading Motive to remove the study from its website and cease using it publicly.
- In an email obtained by FleetOwner Motive's CEO celebrated the legal victory while expressing disappointment from the arbitrator's decision concerning the study.
An arbitrator recently awarded Samsara damages over a Motive-funded study that Motive claimed proved its dash camera solution was significantly more effective than rival Samsara. This comes off the heels of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) recently affirming its 2025 ruling that sided with Motive in a yearslong lawsuit by trucking technology rival Samsara.
The legal battle between the trucking tech companies dates back to January 2024 when Samsara filed a lawsuit against Motive claiming intellectual property theft. In September, an ITC judge sided with Motive on this allegation, stating its solutions do not infringe on Samsara patent claims and no section 337 violations were found. The ITC affirmed that ruling this past February. But that’s not the only subject of the legal battle.
A federal arbitrator recently sided with Samsara on its claims that a Motive-funded study improperly compared Motive’s product with similar products on the market. The arbitrator awarded Samsara a permanent injunction and damages caused by Motive's claims about the study, which was conducted by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). The sought to compare the effectiveness of dash cameras’ distracted alert systems from Motive, Samsara, and Lytx, another trucking technology solutions company. FleetOwner affiliate publication, Fleet Maintenance, has previously reported on the study and its efficacy.
As a result of the court’s decision, Motive has removed the study from its website. FleetOwner confirmed this with a search on Motive’s website leading to a 404 error page. Further, Motive's AI dash cam product page includes the below statement:
"Statements by Motive on its website, in email messages, sales material and advertisements that benchmark tests conducted by Strategy Analytics and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute that the Motive Technologies, Inc., AI dash cam is three-to-four times more successful, accurate and speedy in detecting unsafe driving than Samsara, Inc. AI dash cam has been ruled by a duly authorized Arbitrator to be literally false in violation of the Lanham Act 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)."
Hey Team,
I wanted to share an update on the legal front. We secured a final victory in the International Trade Commission. In February, the ITC affirmed Judge Johnson Hines’ decision that Motive does not infringe any valid Samsara patent claims, and no violations were found. Samsara spent the past two years using this case to discourage customers from choosing Motive by claiming our products would be barred from the U.S. market, but their strategy failed. This is a win for the nearly 100,000 customers and more than 1 million drivers who rely on our technology to improve the safety of our roads.
Separately, we received a decision in the arbitration with Samsara over their non-patent claims. The arbitrator awarded Samsara a permanent injunction and damages in part related to the Virginia Tech and Strategy Analytics AI benchmarking studies. As a result, we are no longer using the studies.
We commissioned the Virginia Tech and Strategy Analytics studies because we believe it is important for customers to compare the performance of AI dash cams given the life saving impact of this technology. But customers do not choose Motive because of these studies. As our sales team knows well, customers choose us because they test our product in their own vehicles over the course of months and are able to directly observe the performance of our AI technology. Our win rate when customers test our AI Dashcam alongside competitors is exceptionally high. That will not change.
While this decision is not what we expected, it is worth recognizing the broader context here. We beat Samsara in the International Trade Commission. Our own legal case against Samsara for patent infringement and false advertising is advancing in district court and will be heard in a jury trial. You can read about that case here: truthandsafety.com.
The reason Motive has grown so rapidly over the past few years is because we build exceptional technology that saves lives, not because of a benchmarking study. With the launch of AI Dashcam Plus, we have extended our technology lead even further. As long as we keep raising the technology bar, and continue to deliver for our customers, Motive will thrive.
Thank you,
Shoaib
In response, Samsara's Chief Legal Officer Adam Eltoukhy championed the need for transparency and honesty in competition. Eltoukhy also shared that this ruling gives Samsara "confidence in the remaining cases" the company has filed against Motive.
“Samsara is focused on our commitment to customer-driven innovation. The facts show Motive committed fraud and made false claims about our product capabilities, misleading prospects and customers. Motive chose to suppress those facts by moving the fraud and false advertising claims we filed in open federal court to a confidential arbitration proceeding, where Motive was justly found liable and ordered to correct its false advertisements, among other things.
Honest competition requires honest comparisons. If Motive believes in transparency, it should allow the ruling underlying the award to be shared with the public. That ruling vindicates our claims and gives us confidence in the remaining cases we filed against Motive for trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to maintain our market momentum by building amazing products and services for our customers.”
The saga between the two trucking tech companies is far from over, as Motive’s countersuit against Samsara is still ongoing and details of Samsara damages to be paid by Motive have yet to be released.
About the Author
Jade Brasher
Senior Editor Jade Brasher has covered vocational trucking and fleets since 2018. A graduate of The University of Alabama with a degree in journalism, Jade enjoys telling stories about the people behind the wheel and the intricate processes of the ever-evolving trucking industry.