Peloton, the fitness company known for its at-home cycling bikes, is suing rival Flywheel Sports over allegations that Flywheel is unlawfully using Peloton’s patented technology. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Peloton claims the FLY Anywhere is a copy of Peloton’s own bike. Both display live and archived cycling classes, track rider performance and compare at-home riders’ performance to others. The lawsuit states that Peloton sent Flywheel a letter following the latter’s May 2017 release of an at-home bike that connects to live studio classes, claiming that device would be infringing on Peloton-owned patents.
A twist in the suit claims that financier Michael Milken approached Peloton’s Chief Executive John Foley at a conference, while acting as a potential investor “and pressed for—and obtained—information from Foley about Peloton’s technology and business strategy,” according to the WSJ. Milken allegedly passed this information along to Flywheel after not disclosing the fact that he was already a multimillion-dollar investor in competitor Flywheel Sports.
Despite this claim, Milken is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit and his representative denies that he acted improperly. According to the suit, Peloton, which was founded in 2011 and is reportedly worth around $4 billion, engaged in discussions with Flywheel about a potential partnership in 2012, but that deal fell through.
According to AdAge.com, Flywheel Sports Chief Marketing Officer Andy Wong says “[Flywheel] denies the claims raised by Peloton and strongly believes that its Anywhere product does not infringe any valid claim of Peloton’s patents.”