Acushnet Co. Wins New Trial in Callaway Patent Case

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.

Acushnet Co. Wins New Trial in Callaway Patent Case

The Acushnet Co. said it won a court victory on Friday 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, saying Acushnet “raised a genuine question of material fact” about Callaway’s patents in its arguments and calling the jury’s verdict “irreconcilably inconsistent.”

The court tossed out a 2007 jury verdict that found an old version of the Pro V1 balls line infringed on several patents held by Callaway.

“The appeals court ruling is very good news and supports our position that the patents in question are invalid,” Joe Nauman, an executive vice president at Acushnet, said in a statement.

Callaway first filed suit against Acushnet in 2006, alleging that the Pro V1 line infringed on four Callaway patents for multi-layered golf balls. Acushnet responded by contending that the rival company’s patents were not valid, but the company lost at trial the following year. In December 2008, a judge ordered Acushnet to stop selling the Pro V1 line in question. The company responded by redesigning the Pro V1 to work around the patents, but Callaway sued over the new models in March. Acushnet responded by filing its own patent suit against Callaway.

After the retrial was announced on August 14, Callaway pointed out that the court did not throw out the case altogether, as Acushnet had proposed, and disagreed that Callaway’s patents should be declared invalid.

Callaway also said it is “confident that it will prevail and looks forward to presenting its claim for damages,” according to a statement issued by Michele Szynal, a spokeswoman for the company.

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