Check Your Divot Repair Tool… You May Be A Patent Infringer

Are you familiar with the GreenFix divot repair tool? I previously posted about the issuance of a patent (USPN 7238126) directed to the GreenFix tool back in July. Well, it did not take long for GreenFix to size up the imitators; in fact, GreenFix filed a patent infringement lawsuit within 3 months of the patent issuing.

In a Ahead, Inc. willfully infringed the patent. While the Complaint does not name a particular Ahead product, I suspect that it is the TurfDoc divot tool that GreenFix believes to be infringing the patent.

Interestingly, the Complaint is only 5 pages yet contains a glaring error… can you identify it? (scroll way down in this post and I reveal the answer)

I always suspected that there was money to be made in divot repair tools…

David Dawsey  – Keeping an Eye on Golf Patent Infringement

PS  – Did you correctly identify the error in the Complaint? Check out page 2 under the title “Claims for Relief”; it states that “Count 1” is “Infringement of U.S. Patent No. Des. 408,546”. Interestingly, the listed design patent covers an above-ground swimming pool! The GreenFix lawsuit concerns a utility patent, not a design patent, and especially not a design patent on an above-ground swimming pool. Oh well, I am sure we have all made cut-and-paste errors; I know that I have (hopefully not in court filings).