A couple of recent trademark applications filed by Acushnet have tipped their hat regarding their “intent to use” a few technology trademarks. I anticipate that the next Titleist line of woods will incorporate….

Because every hacker, myself included, thinks that they can pull off a 1 in 100 shot at least 50% of the time. This makes for great comedy if you aren’t afraid to laugh at your playing partners, or yourself in my case. A few years ago I shared a video with you about my Bill Haas shot from some slick smelly old pond mud. Recently I found myself in the same pond, only this time the ball was just under the surface of the water. Like any good hacker I looked at it, thought about the day’s bet and the fact that my partner and I were only 1 up (he was in his pocket on this hole), and I quickly came to the conclusion that I had this shot, despite the fact that the ball was under water and at least 8 inches below my feet. There was no doubt in my mind, I had this shot.

On March 19th NovelPoint Tracking LLC filed at least six patent infringement lawsuits regarding USPN 6442485 titled “Method and Apparatus for an Automatic Vehicle Location, Collision Notification, and Synthetic Voice.” One of the lawsuits named Cobra Golf Inc. as the defendant (see Complaint). This got my attention. Within 90 seconds I could see that the allegedly infringing product was the Cobra 5600 LM (a GPS navigation system), add another 30 seconds to drop that into a Google search, and clearly it is a product that is not made by Cobra Golf. Generally I think non-practicing entities (NPE’s), or patent trolls as some refer to them, get a bad rap; but come on, how do you make that mistake? Sure, they have sued a lot of golf retailers (check out this list of retailers they sued over golf GPS products), but that is no excuse for naming the wrong company in a patent infringement complaint! This just one reason why NPE’s get so much negative press. Sadly, today I am disappointed in my profession.

Selecting a good product name is hard work. For every ten good names that the marketing guys come up with, one may survive a proper trademark clearance and protectability analysis. In the past Cleveland Golf has not been known for creative and catchy product names, however that may be a thing of the past. Last week they filed a trademark application for…. Not bad, not bad at all! Place your bets; is it a new line of putters or drivers?….

Just imagine the look on the faces of your golfing partners when you stroll up to the first tee with the latest _____ _____ brand golf bag, balls, and clubs!…. Boy, that is one heck of a list! You can check out the trademark application HERE. How is that for hard-hitting golf reporting!….