{"id":1203,"date":"2006-02-20T19:50:05","date_gmt":"2006-02-21T00:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/uncategorized\/titleist_responds_to_callaway_suit\/"},"modified":"2006-02-20T19:50:05","modified_gmt":"2006-02-21T00:50:05","slug":"titleist_responds_to_callaway_suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/bag_drop\/titleist_responds_to_callaway_suit","title":{"rendered":"Titleist Responds To Callaway Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BagLast week we brought you the opening salvo<\/a> in a lawsuit Callaway Golf has filed against Acushnet, parent company of Titleist. Callaway alleges that the Titleist Pro V1 golf ball infringes upon four patents that Callaway acquired when it purchased Top-Flite Golf Company in 2003.<\/p>\n

Acushnet has since released a statement clarifying its position on the disagreement. Read on to see what the Titleist take is, and where we might go from here.
\n
\nAs you’ll recall, at the heart of the Callaway suit are four patents obtained by Top-Flite in 2001 regarding solid-core golf balls. When Callaway purchased Top-Flite out of bankruptcy in 2003, the patents were part of a large package of intellectual property.<\/p>\n

Given that Top-Flite (and the Ben Hogan brand that was also part of the deal) had been experiencing declining sales for years. many thought that the patent portfolio Callaway acquired was the most attractive part of the deal. Since Callaway had started from scratch in the ball business just three years earlier, the company’s patent portfolio was much thinner. Top-Flite, however, had decades of patents covering many different types of golf ball technology.<\/p>\n

After all, coming up with a great idea for a new product is only part of the equation. You also have to do your due diligence and make sure that someone else hasn’t had the same idea, and\/or patented it. There are inventors known as “patent squatters” who obtain patents on all sorts of ideas they never intend to use, only to sit back and wait for a company to infringe upon the patents – leading to a lawsuit, settlement or licensing agreement.<\/p>\n

I don’t think any of the companies involved in this current litigation were acting as squatters. Top-Flite clearly came up with these patents with the idea of using them. The timing of the patents, however, is interesting. In a statement, Acushnet claims that the oldest of the Top-Flite\/Callaway patents was filed on Dec. 12, 1999 – more than nine months after Acushnet received a patent covering similar technology. The other three patents in question were filed in 2001, after the Pro V1 ball was released on tour in October 2000.<\/p>\n

According to the company’s statement, Acushnet has asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine the four patents. Essentially, this is a way of asking to have Callaway’s claim to the patents thrown out, recognizing that Acushnet’s patents are more valid in this case.<\/p>\n

As Acushnet’s statement reads, “We firmly believe in respecting the valid intellectual property of everyone competing in the golf industry. However, we have a very strong belief that these patents are invalid. … We have steadfastly maintained our view that these patents are invalid and have repeatedly shared that view with Top-Flite and Callaway.”<\/p>\n

Let’s not forget that when Bridgestone sued Acushnet over possible Pro V1 patent infringement last year, Acushnet countersued. It’s hard to say what will come next, but things could get ugly if the Patent office doesn’t side with Acushnet. After all, Golf World quoted legal experts saying that Callaway could be entitled to as much as $150 million in lost profits, royalties and damages on the nearly $1 billion the Pro V1 has racked up in sales.<\/p>\n

Acushnet maintains that the Callaway suit, like the Bridgestone suit, won’t affect production or sales of Pro V1 balls. The only thing I know for sure is that there are a lot of busy – and happy – lawyers on both coasts getting ready to go to battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Titleist has fired back at Callaway’s golf ball patent infringement suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bag_drop"],"yoast_head":"\nTitleist Responds To Callaway Suit (Bag Drop) - The Sand Trap .com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/bag_drop\/titleist_responds_to_callaway_suit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Titleist Responds To Callaway Suit (Bag Drop) - 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