The Acushnet Co. won a court victory in its long-running patent dispute with Callaway Golf Co. over Acushnet’s Titleist Pro V1 line of golf balls.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. ordered a new trial and lifted a ban on sales of balls that use the contested technology. The Court said Acushnet “raised a genuine question of material fact” about Callaway’s patents in its arguments and called the jury’s verdict “irreconcilably inconsistent.”
The court tossed out a 2007 jury verdict that found an old version of the Pro V1 ball line infringed on several patents held by Callaway.
“We look forward to making our full case to a new jury, where we will have the opportunity to present all of our defenses with more complete evidence,” said Joe Nauman, EVP of Acushnet's corporate and legal division.
In response, Callaway said in a statement that the court did not throw out the case altogether, as Acushnet had proposed, and added that it is “confident that it will prevail and looks forward to presenting its claim for damages.”
Effective December 31, 2008 Titleist pulled from distribution the Pro V1 family of golf balls in question produced prior to September 2008 and introduced a new Pro V1x ball to the marketplace for 2009. Titleist offered an exchange program in December 2008 for retailers to replace the balls in question with new conforming technology.