E-Z-GO versus Club Car; Finally, A Golf Cart Patent Infringement Battle

Golf carts just don’t get any respect. Golfers largely ignore the beauty and the complex engineering that goes into the design of these wonderful machines. However, there is no doubt the manufacturers never forget about the sweat and tears, not to mention money, that go into designing a reliable golf cart. In fact, last week E-Z-GO sought to protect its investment and filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Club Car alleging that several of the Club Car products infringe E-Z-GO’s patent USPN 7,332,881 titled “AC Drive System for Electrically Operated Vehicle.” The patent describes the invention as:

A drive system for an electric vehicle includes a motor for providing a drive torque and an electrically actuated brake for providing a braking torque to the motor. The system includes a controller that receives a plurality of inputs which may include a battery voltage input, a throttle pedal position input, a brake pedal position input, a key switch input, a forward/neutral/reverse (FNR) input, and a brake full-stroke input in addition to the brake pedal input. The controller may generate a drive signal for the motor based on some or all of the inputs.

Interesting. Now, next time you jump in and out of a golf cart, take a moment and appreciate that it is a finely engineered vehicle!

The entire golf cart patent infringement Complaint may be reviewed David Dawsey  – Monitoring Golf Industry Patent Litigation

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