Ring Cancels Preorders of Its Protect Security System Amid Court Battle With ADT
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Ring, the home security startup behind a popular line of video doorbells and security cameras, has quietly canceled preorders of its new Protect system.
Email announcing the cancellation and promising full refunds has been sent to customers. One of them posted a screenshot of the email to Reddit and Imgur, and forwarded the email to Consumer Reports. It reads, in part, “Unfortunately, we are unable to fulfill your preorder at this time due to a legal dispute with ADT.”
A Ring spokeswoman confirmed that the company was sending out the email.
The development comes after last week’s news that a Delaware judge ordered sales of the system halted pending the outcome of a lawsuit between Ring and home security firm ADT.
ADT alleges that Ring stole its intellectual property via a now defunct startup, Zonoff, in which ADT was a large investor, according to the trade publication CEPro. Zonoff went out of business earlier this year, and ADT says that Zonoff's CEO, Mike Harris, gave assets to Ring that legally belonged to ADT. (Ring hired Harris and many of his employees after Zonoff shut down.)
Ring's CEO, Jamie Siminoff, claimed in a May blog post that those assets were part of a deal between Zonoff and Ring, and were being used to create the Protect security system.
In Consumer Reports' recent price comparison of DIY home security systems, we found that the Ring Protect system offered the best value. It was the most affordable option among the competition both with and without optional professional monitoring.
With Ring’s system effectively off the market, we’ve updated our article with a new value pick.
ADT said it is "pleased with the court’s decision to enter a preliminary injunction against Ring’s improper use of ADT’s intellectual property. ADT respects the intellectual property of others, as we expect others to respect our own; and we look forward to a successful final resolution of this matter.”
In the email sent to preorder customers, Ring said: “We believe this case is without merit and will continue to vigorously fight this in court. Rest assured that we will be releasing a new version of Ring Protect in the coming months. In the meantime, we will be refunding the full amount of your order.”
Ring is also giving preorder customers promo codes for a Ring video doorbell or camera as well as the future release of the Protect system.
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