On May 11th GPS Industries and Optimal IP Holdings filed a patent infringement lawsuit against 10 defendants (3:07CV0831-K, Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division). The list of defendants reads like a Who’s Who of the golfing GPS world. The defendants include:

1. Altex Corporation,
2. DECA International,
3. GolfLogix,
4. GPS GolfPro,
5. GPS Technologies,
6. Karrier Communications,
7. L1 Technologies,
8. Links Point,
9. SkyHawke Technologies, and
10. Tee2Green Technologies.

The defendants produce some pretty cool products (check out the links).

The lawsuit centers around USPN 5364093 titled “Golf Distance Measuring System and Method.” I encourage you to browse through it.

It will be interesting to see how the case plays out, as several of the defendants also own patents related to GPS systems.

David Dawsey – Monitoring Golf Patent Litigation

PS – In an interesting twist to the case (o.k., interesting to a patent attorney), the first named inventor is Charles D. Huston, who also happens to be the patent attorney that prosecuted the patent application. This case may bring up some interesting Attorney-Client privilege issues.

PPS – I just hope this doesn’t reduce the number of Natalie Gulbis SkyCaddie commercials.