Karsten Manufacturing (makers of the PING brand) had a good week at the US Patent & Trademark Office. They had two unique golf club head utility patents issue.

First, USPN 7,192,363 titled “Golf Club Head with a Variably Dampened Face” issued directed to a club head in which the striking face is coupled to the body of the head through a rheological fluid. The head can then be “tuned” by changing the viscosity of the rheological fluid. Innovative stuff… but are golfers ready for it?

The second Karsten patent that issued this week is USPN 7,192,365 titled “Golf Club Head with Pixellated Substrate.” The ‘365 patent is directed to a golf club head face insert that is supported by a substrate composed of a number of elongate rod elements arranged in a parallel closely packed array. The figures below provide a nice visual explanation. The goal of the invention seems to be to vary the effective resiliency of the face insert by varying the resiliency of the substrate that supports the insert. The patent discloses that the rod elements may be made of metallic or non-metallic materials, while preferably a combination of the two are used to provide the desired variation in resiliency. It is unclear if PING has incorporated with technology into any of their commercially available products.

When will Karsten really capitalize on the PING brand by getting into the golf ball market?

Congratulations Karsten.

David Dawsey – Watching Golf Patent Portfolios Grow, and Grow, and Grow…