Titleist, Callaway At It Again with More Patent Lawsuits
For well more than two years, the two companies were tied up in court over a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Callaway against Titleist relating to Titleist's Pro V1 balls. Last November, Callaway won a jury trial and an injuction against Titleist.
Titleist continues to appeal that decision, and in the meantime announced new Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls that Titleist says fall outside the scope of the Callaway patents in question.
But in a new patent infringement lawsuit announced today, Callaway claims that the new Pro V1s also violate its patents:
"We were disappointed to discover that Titleist and Acushnet have again used patented Callaway technology in their Pro V1 golf balls. As long as Titleist - or any competitor -continues to introduce products that we believe infringe our patents, we will continue to seek relief in the courts. We expect to prevail in this second suit as well."
So said Steve McCracken, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Callaway Golf. As noted above, Titleist claims the changes it made to its new Pro V1 balls now have them outside the scope of the Callaway patents.
But not to be outdone in the lawsuit-filing category, Acushnet (parent company of Titleist) is now suing Callaway, claiming that Callaway's Tour i and Tour ix balls violate Titleist patents. Said Joe Nauman, Executive Vice President of Corporate and Legal for the Acushnet Company:
"As the industry leader, we respect the valid intellectual property of others and expect others to respect ours. We believe that disagreements like these are best dealt with between the companies involved and we have repeatedly attempted to resolve these disputes. When these discussions failed, Callaway left us with no other course of action but to move forward with this lawsuit. We are hopeful that these matters can be resolved, but we will continue to protect our intellectual property rights."
Can't we all just get along?
Do golf consumers need to worry about purchasing the new Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls, or the Callaway Tour i and Tour ix balls? As of now, no. These disputes will be tied up in court for, likely, a couple years or more, pending any out-of-court agreements between the two companies. But it's something to keep an eye on because, as in the original Callaway suit against Titleist of Pro V1s, these new lawsuits could eventually impact one or both companies.
Comments
Who cares? They are all looseable, none float and they are all expensive. These companies have nothing better to do with their time and money.
Did this make anyone else think of the old cliche “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?” These are tough economic times for everyone and golf is suffering. We have to attract more players to the game. Why don’t these companies ditch the big lawyer fees and put that money toward making their golf balls more affordable? Or launching innovative programs to build interest in the game? Ya gotta wonder what they’re thinking. . . or are they thinking?
Shame on both companies, save the money you pay to your lawyers and pass the savings on to your customers, lower the price of your equipment. Now that would be something we could cheer about. Other than that I really don’t care, I to tight to $4.00 golf balls anyway. I can’t see that much difference between $1.50 and $4.00 balls in my game anyway.