What’s Going on With Smart Rings?NEWS | 09 January 2026If you’ve been following last year’s smart ring drama, you may have seen that the number of health-tracking rings you can buy has shrunk since October 21.
As we reported in August, the US International Trade Commission ruled in favor of Oura in a patent case in which Oura alleged that its competitors RingConn and Ultrahuman had infringed on the company’s patent for a smart ring that tracks health and fitness stats. Oura’s victory subsequently led to RingConn and Ultrahuman being banned from importing new rings into the US.
The lawsuit was bad news for both Oura competitors, and especially Ultrahuman, which had planned to expand its US-based manufacturing facility to meet growing market demand (and ostensibly to also get around the new US tariffs). Ultrahuman is distinguished from Oura in that its smart ring does not have a subscription; Oura users pay $6 per month to use its rings.
I caught up briefly with Ultrahuman’s chief business officer, Bhuvan Srinivasan, to clarify the company’s next steps to address the US market and find out more about the latest smart ring squabbles.
Why Were the Rings Banned?
The ITC ruled that RingConn and Ultrahuman had infringed on the 178 patent, which protects a specific ring hardware design—for example, if the ring has a layered arrangement with internal and external components housing interior electrical components.
If you think this is a surprisingly broad description that can cover … well, pretty much any smart ring, or a wide range of electronic devices in general, you are correct. Over the past few years, many smart ring manufacturers have been embroiled in legal disputes over this patent.
This has panned out in a few different ways. In 2024, Oura announced that it had reached a multi-year licensing agreement with Circular, the French smart ring manufacturer, that would allow Circular to continue selling new rings in the US. (This move looks a little less generous when you consider that my two-week testing period of the Circular Ring 2 was plagued with server and connection issues.)
Also in 2024, Samsung attempted to preemptively sue Oura against future patent infringement claims in a case that a judge dismissed. Samsung’s concerns were not unwarranted. In late 2025, Oura then filed another complaint against Samsung (the Galaxy Ring), Reebok (the Reebok smart ring), Zepp Health (Amazfit ring), and Nexxbase (the Luna Ring). Oura then reached a licensing agreement with RingConn and another competitor, Omate, that would allow the company to continue selling rings in the United States.
Filing complaints against other companies isn’t all that Oura has been doing. Late last year, the company launched a brand-new ceramic ring collection and a charging case. It also announced plans to break ground on a Texas facility to support manufacturing for its largest enterprise customer, the US Department of Defense.
Where Does That Leave Competitors?
To be clear, we like Oura’s rings here at WIRED; the Oura Ring 4 is still our pick for best overall smart ring. (I’m wearing mine right now.) However, I was curious to find out the next steps for Oura’s competitors.
“Intellectual property is super important to us,” says Ultrahuman’s Srinivasan, who has a background in biomedical engineering and was a former engineer at the health tech company Medtronic. “The pace of progress is so high that ultimately it will be innovation, and how quickly you can put out new features and new technology” that determines success.Author: Adrienne So. Source
