Callaway Golf Company announced that Shirley Tsou and GolfCo in Brea, California, as well as Alex Mowry and National Golf Liquidators of Oceanside and Anaheim, California, have agreed to a permanent injunction prohibiting them from selling “Big Easy” golf clubs or any other golf clubs that infringe Callaway Golf’s intellectual property rights.
In addition, these settling defendants will collectively pay Callaway Golf more than $100,000 and will forfeit their inventories of infringing products. A lawsuit filed by Callaway Golf will now proceed to trial against the remaining defendants, including Jimmy Lin and Newport Golf of Anaheim, California.
The settlements with Tsou, GolfCo, Mowry and National Golf Liquidators resulted from a May 2002 court-ordered seizure of “Big Easy” and other knockoff golf clubs from Newport Golf in Anaheim, California. The May raid resulted in the seizure of 28,000 knockoff club heads and other components, as well as over 100,000 golf club medallions, extensive business records, and money kept in several bank accounts by Newport Golf and associated entities.
As a result of the evidence seized during the raid, the Court entered a preliminary injunction confirming the seizures and preventing Newport Golf, Jimmy Lin and others from selling the clubs accused of violating Callaway Golf’s intellectual property rights. The court has set a trial date in January 2004, at which time Callaway Golf will pursue further recoveries from Lin and Newport Golf.
“The people that distribute illegal copies of our golf clubs are taking unfair advantage of consumers, our retail customers, our employees and our shareholders,” said Steve McCracken, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Callaway Golf. “We have settled this dispute with those people who were less involved and who have shown a willingness and desire to stop. On the other hand, we intend to pursue this case aggressively against Mr. Lin and his company, who we allege to be the main wrongdoers, seeking full recovery at trial.”
