Looks Like TaylorMade and Callaway Will Settle Their Golf Club Patent Infringement Battle
As you may recall from a prior post, and the subsequent update, in early August Callaway filed two patent infringement lawsuits against TaylorMade.
Callaway filed one patent infringement complaint in the “rocket docket” Eastern District of Texas alleging that TaylorMade has willfully infringed USPN 5704849 titled “Golf Club Head with Audible Vibration Attenuation.” While Callaway filed the second patent infringement suit in the Southern District of California alleging that TaylorMade has willfully infringed a couple of Callaway’s golf ball patents (USPN’s 6638185 and 7160207), and also alleging that four of TaylorMade’s patents (USPN’s 6547678, 6991558, 7197575, and 6719644) are invalid.
TaylorMade then filed their responses in the two cases with counterclaims alleging that Callaway has infringed USPN’s 6547678, 6719644, 6991558, and 7197575, and alleging the unenforceability, invalidity, and/or noninfringement of Callaway’s USPN’s 5704849, 6638185, and 7160207. Additionally, TaylorMade alleged unenforceability, invalidity, and noninfringement of two additional Callaway patents; namely USPNs 5409229 and 5605511 both titled “Golf Club Head with Audible Vibration Attenuation.”
On October 31st the Court reported that TaylorMade and Callaway participated in an Early Neutral Evaluation Conference and that there is hope that a full settlement can be achieved within approximately 30 days. Click HERE to read the Court’s report. Darn, it would have been fun watching each side try to invalidate the other’s patents! Looks like we will never know how they worked it out ($$$), if indeed they do.
David Dawsey - Monitoring Golf Patent Litigation
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