Acushnet Co. won a victory last week in its ongoing fight against Callaway Golf for the right to continue to manufacture its Titleist Pro V1 golf balls. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which has been reexamining the patents in the dispute since January 2006, continued to maintain the patents' invalidity as it moved one patent to the appeal stage and closed prosecution on a second patent, according to an article on southcoasttoday.com.
Decisions on the remaining two patents are still pending.
Acushnet Co. contends that the patents owned by Carlsbad, Calif.-based Callaway are invalid, while Callaway, in a civil suit filed in federal district court in Delaware in February 2006, argued that the Pro V1 golf ball line infringes on its patents.
“That's very good news for us,” Acushnet Co. executive vice president Joseph Nauman told southcoasttoday.com. “It tells us that the patent office has heard all the arguments and is still unconvinced.”
Callaway declined to comment on the decisions.
