Titleist Wins Decision In Pro V1 Patent
Dispute With Callaway
Fairhaven, MA (March 29, 2010) - Acushnet Company, the golf business of
Fortune Brands, Inc. and manufacturer of Titleist, the #1 ball in golf,
announced that it won a jury verdict in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Delaware in its golf ball patent dispute with Callaway Golf
Co.. Callaway asserted that previous generation Titleist Pro V1 golf balls
had infringed on four patents originally owned by Spalding and subsequently
purchased by Callaway Golf. The jury agreed with Acushnet's position that
the patents in question are invalid.
"We are extremely pleased with the court's decision, and we hope that this
finally brings this long standing dispute to a close," said Joe Nauman,
Executive Vice President, Corporate and Legal, Acushnet Company. "We have
explained throughout this process that Acushnet independently developed the
technology in question. The Titleist Pro V1 family utilizes technology from
74 Acushnet patents and was first introduced to our PGA TOUR players in
October 2000, well before any of the Spalding patents were issued in 2001
and 2003. We appreciate the jury's careful consideration of the facts and
the time they devoted to these proceedings. This verdict affirms our view
that all claims in these patents are invalid - just as the U.S. Patent &
Trademark Office (PTO) has repeatedly found."
In January 2006, before Callaway filed this litigation, Acushnet petitioned
the PTO to reexamine the four patents in the suit. Since then, the PTO has
repeatedly found that all claims of all four patents are invalid. During
this process, seven separate PTO examiners were involved in evaluating the
validity of these patents and all seven concluded that they are invalid.
Acushnet Company has a comprehensive product and process Research and
Development staff and the Pro V1 golf ball franchise represents the
accumulation of technology developed by Acushnet over a 20-year period. As
the worldwide golf ball performance and technology leader, Acushnet
currently holds over 715 of the nearly 2,000 active patents related to golf
balls - more than any other manufacturer.
