Ultrahuman’s new Ring Pro is not just another health gadget; it’s a survival strategy. After a U.S. import ban triggered by rival Oura’s patent win, the Indian startup is effectively redesigning its flagship product — and its business model — in public. At stake is not only access to its biggest market, but also who will control the next phase of “invisible” wearables that sit closer to our bodies than smartphones or watches.
In this piece, we’ll unpack what Ultrahuman has launched, why the Oura dispute matters far beyond two companies, how AI-powered “biointelligence” changes the game, and what all this means for European users and regulators.
1. The news in brief
According to TechCrunch, Bengaluru-based Ultrahuman has unveiled the Ring Pro, its third-generation smart ring, as it tries to restart momentum after a U.S. import ban in late 2025.
Key facts:
- Product: Ultrahuman Ring Pro smart ring
- Battery life: Up to 15 days (vs. 4–6 days on the previous Ring Air)
- Price: $479
- Availability: Global pre-orders (except the U.S.), with shipments starting in March
- U.S. status: New design submitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for clearance following an adverse U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling in October 2025 that halted imports of its earlier ring models after Oura’s patent complaint.
The U.S. previously represented about 45% of Ultrahuman’s ~700,000 daily active users. Despite the disruption, the company is operating at an annualized revenue run rate of about $150 million, with $64 million in operating revenue in the financial year ending March 2025 and profitability after tax.
Alongside the hardware, Ultrahuman introduced Jade, a real-time “biointelligence” layer that combines data from its devices and services to generate personalized health insights and recommendations. Jade is currently free for all Ultrahuman users, including older rings.
2. Why this matters
The obvious headline is that Ultrahuman is trying to get back into the U.S. market. The deeper story is that smart rings are maturing from niche gadgets into a strategically important battleground — and patent law, not just product design, is starting to decide who gets to compete.
For Ultrahuman, the Ring Pro is existential. Losing access to a market that accounted for nearly half its daily users is not a temporary hiccup. A redesign that explicitly works around Oura’s patents is a bet that engineering ingenuity can outpace legal constraints. Submitting the new design to CBP before shipping to the U.S. is effectively asking regulators to certify that this workaround is real, not cosmetic.
For Oura, the dispute has already paid off. The ITC ruling has bought the Finnish-origin company breathing room in its largest rival’s key growth market. With Counterpoint Research data (as cited by TechCrunch) putting Oura’s share at over two-thirds of global smart ring shipments and Ultrahuman in second place, this is starting to look like a classic duopoly — and duopolies tend to weaponize patents aggressively.
Consumers may benefit in the short term. To justify a $479 price tag, Ultrahuman has pushed battery life up to 15 days and added more on-device processing and improved heart-rate sensing. The new Pro Charger and long-term on-device storage (up to 250 days of data) show a focus on reliability, not just flashy dashboards.
But there’s a risk: if patent skirmishes escalate, the smart ring market could consolidate even faster, leaving fewer viable alternatives and less price competition. Smaller startups without big legal budgets will think twice before entering a category where one misstep can trigger an ITC complaint.
Finally, Jade is strategically as important as the ring itself. By positioning its AI layer as real-time, action-oriented guidance and making it free for now, Ultrahuman is trying to:
- Differentiate on software quality, not just sensors
- Build a data and algorithm moat that survives even if hardware is commoditized
- Nudge users toward higher-value subscription services later
In other words, this is not just about rescuing hardware sales in the U.S.; it’s about defining who owns the “operating system” for your health data.
3. The bigger picture
To understand this launch, it helps to zoom out to three overlapping trends: the rise of ring-based wearables, the shift from retrospective to real-time health coaching, and the return of old-school patent wars.
1. Smart rings are moving from curiosity to category.
TechCrunch cites Counterpoint Research figures showing global smart ring shipments growing nearly 80% year-over-year in 2025, with Oura dominating and Ultrahuman in second place. IDC numbers for Q3 2025 suggest shipments of nearly 1 million units in that quarter alone, up about 30% year over year, with Ultrahuman capturing roughly 25% of the market.
Those are still tiny numbers compared to smartwatches, but the trajectory is clear: users want screenless, comfortable, all-day wearables — especially for sleep tracking and recovery. Rings excel at these use cases because they’re less intrusive in bed and can offer stable readings for heart rate and temperature.
2. From data history to real-time nudging.
Most first-generation wearables sold you charts: how you slept last night, how many steps you walked last week. That’s useful, but backward-looking. Ultrahuman’s Jade joins a broader shift toward continuous guidance — nudging users in or near real time when their physiology changes.
This aligns with where health-tech investors have been placing their bets: not on raw sensor innovation alone, but on AI systems that can interpret noisy data streams and turn them into behavior change. Whoever wins this race will own the user relationship, regardless of which device is collecting the data.
3. Patent wars are back, just on your finger.
The Oura–Ultrahuman clash echoes the smartphone patent battles of the early 2010s (think Apple vs. Samsung), where design and functionality patents were used to shape entire product categories. The ITC is once again a powerful lever: one ruling can effectively shut a product out of the U.S. market overnight.
There’s an irony here: while regulators talk about interoperability and open ecosystems, companies are tightening control via closed IP portfolios. For smart rings, which are still early in their lifecycle, this could determine whether we end up with an Oura–Ultrahuman duopoly, or a more diverse set of players spanning Asia, Europe, and the U.S.
4. The European / regional angle
For Europe, this story has several layers: industrial, regulatory, and consumer.
First, Oura itself has European roots, even if its footprint is now global. Its success in enforcing patents in the U.S. underscores that European-origin companies can set the rules of the game in new hardware categories. If Ultrahuman gains traction in Europe, it would not be surprising to see similar legal disputes migrate to European courts or the Unified Patent Court framework.
Second, European regulation will shape how far Jade-like systems can go. Smart rings sit in a grey zone between wellness gadgets and potential medical devices. Once an AI system starts making individualized health recommendations in real time, it brushes up against:
- GDPR, for sensitive health data processing and data minimization
- The EU AI Act, especially if recommendations are considered high-risk health AI
- The Medical Device Regulation (MDR), if features drift from wellness into diagnosis or treatment suggestions
Ultrahuman says Jade is free and available to all users, which is attractive in a market where many rivals lean heavily on subscriptions. But free is never really free under GDPR: European users will want to know where their physiological data is stored, how long it is retained (Ring Pro can store 250 days locally), and who has access to it.
Third, Europe’s privacy-conscious culture and strong public healthcare systems create a different adoption pattern than in the U.S. Rings are less about replacing doctors and more about complementing primary care and supporting mental health, sleep, and chronic condition management.
For European startups in digital health, the message is mixed:
- There is clear demand for compact, AI-augmented wearables.
- But entering this space now means navigating an increasingly dense thicket of patents and regulations, plus powerful incumbents.
5. Looking ahead
Several things are worth watching over the next 12–24 months.
1. Will CBP let the Ring Pro into the U.S.?
This is the immediate cliffhanger. If CBP decides the redesign still violates Oura’s patents, Ultrahuman faces a prolonged absence from the world’s most lucrative wearables market. That would accelerate a pivot toward Europe, India, and other regions, and deepen its reliance on software and services.
If CBP grants clearance, expect a full-throttle U.S. relaunch with battery life and Jade as headline differentiators. Oura would then have to decide whether to escalate legally again or focus on out-innovating Ultrahuman.
2. How long does Jade stay free?
Today, subscriptions represent about 16% of Ultrahuman’s revenue, with its Blood Vision metabolic panel adding another 5–6%. As litigation and redesign costs eat into margins, the temptation will be strong to:
- Introduce tiered access to Jade
- Bundle it with coaching or lab services
- Offer specialized plans for segments like athletes or women’s health (women already make up about 68% of its user base)
The company will need to balance monetization with trust. Over-aggressive paywalls or opaque AI decisions could erode the credibility needed to guide health-related behavior.
3. Hardware roadmaps and regulation.
Smart rings will likely add more biomarkers over time — from better stress proxies to tighter integration with metabolic markers like glucose (Ultrahuman already offers continuous glucose monitoring on its broader platform). Each step closer to clinical relevance will bring them further into the orbit of medical regulators.
The players that win will be those that can:
- Ship reliable hardware at scale
- Maintain regulatory-grade data quality
- Navigate multi-region legal landscapes (U.S. ITC, EU MDR, GDPR, AI Act, and emerging Indian rules)
4. Reputation and ethics.
Finally, there’s the question of how these systems communicate limits. Real-time biointelligence can easily be over-sold as a substitute for medical advice. If users start relying on ring notifications to manage serious conditions, regulators and medical bodies will push back.
Companies that are transparent about what their AI can and cannot do — and that integrate with clinicians rather than replace them — will have a long-term edge.
6. The bottom line
Ultrahuman’s Ring Pro and Jade launch is more than a product refresh. It’s a test case for whether a hardware startup can innovate its way around a patent blockade and use AI to deepen its relationship with users at the same time.
If it succeeds, smart rings could become the most important health gadget you own, quietly tracking and nudging in the background. If it fails, the category risks hardening into a narrow duopoly defined more by legal firepower than by user benefit. The real question for readers is simple: who do you trust to sit on your finger — and to sit on your health data?
