Yesterday I posted about an invention designed to keep a golfer’s leading leg under control. Today let’s take a look a recently patented invention designed to keep the trailing leg under control. The invention is found in USPN 7517287 titled “Golf Swing Improvement Device.” Check it out..... Which invention would you find most helpful? I am leaning toward the _______ invention, but why not combine them!<< MORE >>

What is more important during a golf swing, controlling the movement of your leading leg or your trailing leg? Beats me. Heck, if I knew then I would be a much better golfer. The reason I ask is that the USPTO records reveal two recently disclosed golf training inventions that take different approaches to controlling a golfer’s lower body. The first invention is disclosed in a patent application that recently published as US Pub. No. 20090105005 titled “Golf Swing Training Device.” Check it out.... What do you think? I am not sure that I would buy it, but I would give it a try. << MORE >>

Every now and then I come across a golf training invention disclosed in a patent application that makes me say “I would buy that (assuming it is priced right).” It happened last week when I came across the invention found in US Pub. No. 20090105004 titled “Inertially Responsive Golf Club Head Mounted Device for Instructing Correct Club Face Direction & Swing Speed.” Check out this nifty device.... Pretty cool little device, but what would you pay for it?....<< MORE >>

Have you been watching The Haney Project: Charles Barkley show on TGC? If so, you have probably seen Charles hit some decent shots when Hank is standing over him holding his head; and you have probably also seen Charles hit some less than perfect shots as soon as Hank steps away. Last week a patent application published that made me immediately think of poor Charles. The invention disclosed in US Pub. No. 20090105006 titled “Training Apparatus for Improving a Golf Swing” seems to be made for him. Check it out!..... Now if only they could throw a set of wheels on it so Charles could attach it to a cart and pull it around the course..... << MORE >>

It is hard to believe that it has been a year and a half since reporting on Donald’s intent to host “The Donald J. Trump World Open.” Well, it appears that he may have given up on that dream. After 30 months to submit proof of his use of the THE DONALD J. TRUMP WORLD OPEN trademark, he has let the application go abandoned. I won’t shed any tears.....<< MORE >>

Recall last year’s post titled “Is This Callaway Driver Radical Enough for You?” Well, last week Callaway was granted a patent on the “c-shaped golf club head.” Amazing design!.... The fact that Callaway paid the fees necessary to get the patent issued makes me think that they may actually produce this club! Heck, I would give it a try....<< MORE >>

How do you think golf compares to other sports in terms of the number of patents issued? Care to guess whether the number of golf patents issued more accurately matches the stock market and the economy than the overall pool of all patents?<< MORE >>

The inventor listed on a recently published patent application wants to educate golfers on “golf’s magic lines.” The application published as US Pub. No. 20090098953 titled “Method for Teaching a Golf Swing Using Simple Thought Imagery and Very Limited Body Awareness.” What, “thought imagery” and “limited body awareness!” Initial thoughts…. a little airy fairy. See what you think....<< MORE >>

On Friday the USGA filed a Complaint accusing ISaAC Scoring Systems of false advertising, service mark infringement, false designation of origin, common law unfair competition, unfair competition under New Jersey Fair Trade Act, misappropriation, and tortuous interference with business relationships. Yowza! You can read the original Complaint HERE. I have highlighted the most interesting portions of the Complaint below.... I bet you will never look at your USGA Handicap Index the same! This case should make the providers of independent handicap systems closely review their marketing materials....<< MORE >>

Following up on my recent POST regarding a few interesting Callaway trademark applications, what does PING have in store for their future product lines? Not surprisingly, PING is.... Earlier this month they filed trademark applications seeking protection for.... So, is the golf industry lacking in originality when developing new product names or is it simply a matter of capitalizing on a recognized brand? I believe....<< MORE >>

It has been over 1.5 years since I last reported on Callaway’s trademark filings. Well, an update may provide some insight on future Callaway clubs. USPTO records indicate that Callaway intends to use.... << MORE >>

Are you familiar with Dr. Frank D. Werner? He is the author of a handful of books (example 1, 2) on golf club engineering, and was one of the early supporters of square drivers (see THIS prior post). Based upon his bio, I would bet that Frank is one smart guy. Well, Frank was recently granted an interesting patent; namely, USPN 7510486 titled “Elastic Head Golf Club.” As you can imagine, the title caught my attention. The patent describes the invention as.... Check out this design.... Great stuff, but will this elastic golf club make it to market?<< MORE >>

Can you identify this molecular structure?.... Luckily, the golf shaft designers at SRI Sports know the molecular structure of fullerene. Yesterday, SRI was granted an interesting golf shaft patent; namely, USPN 7517288 titled “Golf Club Shaft.” The patent describes the invention as.... The patent goes on to explain the need for this new shaft design (and insult senior golfers at the same time).... Who knew fullerene was so handy! Talk about some brain power going into shaft design.... << MORE >>

I was honored to be a guest on the nationally syndicated Small Business Advocate® radio show this morning. Jim Blasingame and I discussed trademarks and some easy concepts that will help you select names for products and services that are protectable. Feel free to listen to the interview HERE..... << MORE >>

While I do love golf, I am not sure I would be willing to publicly use the device disclosed in the recently issued patent USPN 7513834 titled “Golf Swing Training Device.” Check it out.... << MORE >>

An interesting golf grip patent recently issued. The patent is USPN 7510483 titled “Golf Club Grip,” and describes the invention as..... Perhaps "grip fitting" will become as common as club fitting and ball fitting. I wouldn't mind being able to adjust the way that my grips feel. It would be interesting to know if these grip designs were ever determined to be USGA conforming.... << MORE >>

In honor of Masters' week, a look at the trademark portfolio of Augusta National is in order. Would you have guessed that AMEN CORNER is a registered trademark? How about the fact that Augusta National has registered the AUGUSTA trademark for use associated with golf stools and chairs? And the famous map with flagstick trademark is registered for use in association with restaurant services.... and RAE'S CREEK....<< MORE >>

This week’s GolfWorld magazine had an interesting article titled “Masters of Design – A Pair of Green Jacket Winners Also Had a Game in the Area of Club Invention.” I was impressed because I know how tedious it was to do the research necessary for me to write a short post back prior to the 2007 Masters titled “Which Two Masters Champions Have Been Issued Utility Patents since 1976?” In fact, since my original post I discovered that another Masters champion had been unintentionally left off of my list (and GolfWorld's article); namely Lefty (aka Philip A. Mickelson), see THIS post from January 2008 giving Lefty the credit that he deserves.<< MORE >>

Recently SRI Sports (the parent company of Srixon and Cleveland Golf) was granted an interesting golf swing diagnosis system patent. The patent is USPN 7502491, which describes the invention as.... Time to brush up on your pixel binarization to extract shaft motion using a movement vector.... Cool stuff! It is just a matter of time before all golfers have access to low cost self-service swing diagnosis systems.<< MORE >>

I doubt it, but driving range kiosks are an interesting idea. Recently a patent application published as US Pub. No. 20090069105 titled “System and Method for Improving Golf Skills” and explains....<< MORE >>

OK, you start by measuring (i)....(vi) you do the Hokey-Pokey, and you turn yourself around, that's what it's all about! But seriously, according to the German inventor listed on USPN 7510490 titled “Method for Determining Length of the Shaft of an Individually Adapted Golf Club” those are the measurements you need to properly determine a golf club shaft length..... Ahh, now I see my problem…. I have never properly accounted for the curvature of my spine! << MORE >>

It has been a while since I have tested your golf club knowledge, so here we go. This club should be easy to identify given the huge quantity of advertisements and commercials. The following drawings come from a driver design patent that issued yesterday. Do you recognize this club?.....<< MORE >>

Earlier this year Callaway Golf acquired uPlay Technologies and launched the new Callaway uPro website. In the past couple of weeks two uPlay patent applications published giving us the first look at uPlay’s intellectual property. Could one of these applications provide us with a glimpse at the future of golf GPS devices?..... << MORE >>

Qualcomm had an interesting patent application publish this week. The application published this week as US Pub. No. 20090082139 titled “Methods and Apparatus for Determining Distances to Selected Targets on a Golf Course Using a Wireless Communications Device,” which describes the invention as.... I know, that is a pretty benign description from the Abstract of the application and it is hard to identify anything unique.... Seems like a lot of the same, but I like the idea of a direction vector as discussed in paragraph [0029]. << MORE >>

Ahh, a patent application directed to incorporating Velcro or magnets into a belt to secure your golf glove, ball marker, repair tool, or ball pouch. I wonder if this application will ever grow into a patent. Regardless, it is entertaining. Check out these drawings.... What the heck is that attached to the right side of the belt above? It looks like either the foot of a chicken or the smallest golf glove I have ever seen!.... Has this inventor never ruined an expensive golf shirt by accidentally rubbing it with the Velcro of a golf glove? Confirmation that golfers are nuts (myself included)!<< MORE >>

Are you one of those golf nuts that records their swings and analyzes every last aspect of it? If so, you will love this little product. The drawings from a patent application that published this week do a better job of describing the invention and I can do with words. Check it out!.... Now, if that little gadget was priced right, it would sell!<< MORE >>

Well, it is far less than I would have guessed. For Acushnet, the answer is approximately (guess) pounds of force. The answer comes from a patent application that published this week; namely, US Pub. No. 20090072437 titled “High Speed Casting of a Golf Ball Layer.” The application describes the invention as.... The application does a great job explaining the typical golf ball manufacturing process.... The answer to the question posed in the title comes from the following paragraph.... << MORE >>

Welcome to my world. It is a miracle that I can swing a golf club with all the fascinating (some may say “useless”) golf information floating around in my head! Several of the more interesting golf patents that issued this week concerned golf ball dimples. One in particular will make you realize how little you remember from trigonometry class. On Tuesday Acushnet was granted USPN 7503856 titled “Dimple Patterns for Golf Balls.” The patent describes the invention as.... If “hexagonal dipyramid polyhedron” didn’t make your eyes gloss over, then give the patent a glance to refresh your knowledge of inverse tangents, Reynolds Numbers, and aerodynamic coefficients. I am not sure whether a job researching and designing dimple patterns would be cool and exciting, or would make me insane. << MORE >>

I love patents directed to golf ball aerodynamics and fortunately an interesting one issued this week. Yesterday Bridgestone was granted USPN 7503857 titled “Golf Ball.” The patent describes the invention as.... Check out these dimples.... << MORE >>

Familiar with the DeLaCruz SweetSlot line of putters? If not, check them out because they deserve a look. Well, today DeLaCruz Golf Designs was granted a design patent on some form of the SweetSlot putter. I say "some form" because the alignment features on the putter in the patent do not seem to match those of any of the putters on their website. The patent is USPN D588658 titled “Golf Putter With Slotted Head.” Check it out.... Personally, I prefer their blade versions over their cavity backs, but they all look sweet! << MORE >>

Recently Plop Golf has reemerged on the golf scene touting a new Center Shafted Hosel (CSH) technology. As with anything new, some have questioned whether the CSH technology is marketing hype or truly a technology improvement based upon sound engineering. I will let you be the judge of that. This week a patent application published directed to Plop’s new CSH technology. Oddly, the Plop Golf home page says “Introducing the new CSH Patented Technology,” and another page states “The new PLOP RSVP 2 debuts with the patented CSH (Center Shafted Hosel) technology.” Readers of this blog know that there is a big difference between having a patent application filed, and therefore being “patent pending,” versus having an issued patent, and therefore being a “patented technology!”....<< MORE >>

Back in December I wrote a post about a scented grip designed by Scotty Cameron. That was a little hard to believe, but then yesterday another patent application published directed to adding scent to a golf grip. Why? Why I ask? Can’t golfers just enjoy the clean fresh natural scent of a golf course! The patent application published as US Pub. No. 20090069108 titled “Golf Club Handle Cover” and describes the invention as.... What! “The aroma is exhaled from the body to greet the player’s nose that offers the player a boost in vitality.” I don’t think I have ever had an aroma "greet" my nose, let alone one that boosts my vitality. Enjoy this description of the invention and appreciate the subtle, and not so subtle, issues that arise when translating documents between different languages.... I just can't imagine that there is actually a market for these....<< MORE >>

An interesting putter grip patent application published today. Check out the putter grip disclosed in US Pub. No. 20090069106 titled “Grip Arrangement for Golf Club.”.... The application explains.... No doubt that it is one unique grip.... << MORE >>

Back in December I wrote a POST about a dual shafted driver. Never did I think that I would be writing a post about a two shafted putter and wedge just a few months later. I recently discovered USPN 5547196 titled “Two-Shafted Golf Wedge Club and Method for Using Same.” Check out these clubs!..... There may be something to this invention, but boy would you get some odd looks from fellow golfers on the practice green. << MORE >>

What would be your reaction if a member of your foursome started using their putter as a pipe (probably not to smoke tobacco)? Recently I came across USPN 6454661 titled “Golf Club with Smoking Pipe Attachment.” The patent describes the invention as.... Interesting use of a putter that would never have crossed my mind. Seems like something that was invented during a case of the munchies.<< MORE >>

Golf shaft technology is fascinating, partly because it is so misunderstood. Well, this week Harrison Sports, Inc. was granted a shaft patent that may provide you with an inside look at some of their unique technology. The patent is USPN 7497786 titled “Golf Club Shaft Having Multiple Metal Fiber Layers,” presumably directed to their reinforced graphite shafts. The patent explains.... << MORE >>

As most golfers know, Callaway Golf and Acushnet (aka Titleist) have been keeping patent litigation attorneys fed and nicely clothed for years. In fact, their golf ball patent dispute has been one of the most widely covered patent litigation cases in recent history. If this is news to you then check out my POST from December 2007 summarizing the jury verdict (and yes the case is still ongoing). Today, the love continues with two new golf ball patent infringement lawsuits. Callaway sued Acushnet over the converted 2007 Pro V1’s and the new 2009 Pro V1x golf balls, and Acushnet sued Callaway over the Tour i and Tour ix golf balls. Callaway alleges infringement of USPN’s 6495633 and 6623381, while Acushnet alleges infringement of USPN’s 6913547, 7255656, 7226369, 6945880, 7473195, 7491137, 6905426, 7455601, and 6180040. You can review the Callaway Complaint HERE and the Acushnet Complaint HERE, but for your convenience I have reproduced some of the more interesting points from the Callaway Complaint below....<< MORE >>

Any patent applications including “golf-bat” in the title get my immediate attention. This week a patent application published with the title “Golf-Bat for Centrifugal Golf Swing” (US Pub. No. 20090054171). The application describes the invention as.... Check out these drawings.... The application explains (bear with some odd sentence structure, probably some translation issues).... So, hot product or flop product? It doesn’t look like it would hurt my swing, so I would give it a try....<< MORE >>

Patent applications directed to methods of scoring a round of golf don’t come along everyday, but this week an interesting “worst ball” format patent application was published. The application published as US Pub. No. 20090054169 titled “Method of Scoring Rounds of Golf” and describes the invention as.... The application goes on to explain.... Interesting idea, but might be difficult to enforce if a patent is granted....<< MORE >>

OK, I don’t know if they have them, but they have thought about them! This week Callaway was granted USPN 7494428 titled “Golf Ball,” which describes the invention as.... Check out this drawing showing the deep apertures extending through the cover and into the core..... The patent contains an interesting explanation of the golf ball manufacturing process.... Interesting stuff, but unfortunately the patent doesn’t explain the benefit associated with deep apertures extending through the cover and into the core. Bummer....<< MORE >>

OK, I may be somewhat biased since I helped create the IP video library, but if you have intellectual property questions then you should check it out because you may just find some helpful information regarding patents, trademarks, and intellectual property in general. Don’t worry, you don’t have to watch me explaining answers to commonly asked intellectual property questions. My law practice partner Michael Gallagher does the presenting. Feel free to check out the Gallagher & Dawsey intellectual property video library HERE....<< MORE >>

Callaway had an interesting golf ball patent application publish today as US Pub. No. 20090054177 titled “Dimples Composed of Letters or Symbols Inset into Cover,” which describes the invention as.... That’s right, logos in your dimples, or dimples that are logos! Just what the game of golf has needed..... << MORE >>

Really, a patent issued today directed to a method of correcting your golf swing over the internet. I know, hard to believe. The patent is USPN 7494430 titled “System and Method for Correcting Golf Swing Using Internet” and describes the invention as.... Nothing a few flowcharts can’t clear up!.... Got it? Check out this claim from the patent.... Holy mackerel, it seems like it would be hard to infringe that claim! << MORE >>

You may recall my prior posts (here and here) regarding a trademark dispute between John Daly and Hippo Holdings and Hippo Golf. Well, Hippo Golf is on the receiving end of another trademark infringement lawsuit; this time from MRC Golf Inc., aka Mitsubishi Rayon Company Golf. A Complaint was filed on Thursday in the Southern District of California (Case No. 09 CV 0327) by Mitsubishi Rayon alleging.... I have reproduced some of the more interesting parts below.... Ouch, those are some serious allegations! It will be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out.... << MORE >>

Recently a patent application published that combines the best of a virtual reality golf game and the technical data of a launch monitor. The patent application published as US Pub. No. 20090036237 titled “Golf Gaming Systems and Methods” and explains.... Pretty cool but will this take the place of Golden Tee in your local bar? << MORE >>

Ever practiced putting with an egg? Check out design patent USPN D586419 titled “Golf Putting Practice Device,” which issued last week..... Interesting concept!....<< MORE >>

This week a patent issued with the title “Golf Ball Passing Elephant Miniature Golf Course Hazard,” so I had to check it out. The patent issued as USPN 7488260 and describes the invention as.... Really? The “ball exits the rear end to simulate the elephant pooping the ball.” Check it out.... Boy, I must be underestimating the size of the miniature golf market! << MORE >>

Today an interesting golf tee design patent issued to Excel Golf Products, owners of the ZeroFriction line of tees, and Tocare line of grips. Check out this design.... Looks like it would require delicate placement of the ball! The golf tee patent that issued today is USPN D586411 titled “Golf Tee.” Definitely not a lot of contact between the ball and the tee, which should be a good thing....<< MORE >>

An interesting patent application published with week covering a golf bag invention. Would you buy a golf bag that has a pull cart built into it? Check it out.... Interesting concept, but it is hard to believe that it has not been done before. << MORE >>

I was honored to be a guest on the nationally syndicated Small Business Advocate® radio show this morning. Jim Blasingame and I discussed trade secrets and how they relate to small businesses. I have been a fan of Jim’s show for close to 10 years and highly recommend it. You may listen to the interview here. << MORE >>