Over the past few months, you have probably read in golf publications about the results of an ongoing lawsuit between Callaway Golf and Acushnet, the parent company of Titleist. As it turns out, Callaway owned patents that Acushnet infringed upon for years when manufacturing the Pro V1 golf ball, which is the highest selling in the game. The Pro V1 alone accounts for 22 percent of all golf ball sales.
As a result of the judgment, Callaway is entitled to a settlement payment that was recently valued at approximately $150 million. Additionally, a federal judge granted an injunction against the sale of the Pro V1 golf balls that were manufactured by Titleist using methods that infringed upon Callaway-owned patents. Since September, Titleist has revised its manufacturing so that Pro V1 creation, distribution, and sale would not be interrupted.
Really, the impact on the average golfer may very well be nothing when it comes to getting their hands on precious Pro V1s. The golf ball that revolutionized the game and took over the market will still be available. But Callaway is trying to take these headlines and use them as a way of promoting their own line of golf balls. Just this past week, Callaway unveiled a new advertising campaign that — in a gist — says that they were the ones behind the Pro V1.
That statement, though, is only a half-truth. Yes, Callaway owns the patents that allowed them to sue Acushnet for this injunction and forthcoming settlement. Despite that, Callaway did not originally file the patents that are going to yield such a nice bounty for the company. Top Flite was.
Yes, Top Flite — makers of the Rock Flite and other low-end classics that are probably equally as good for most amateurs as the Pro V1 — filed and owned the patents until Callaway purchased the company after it filed for bankruptcy in 2003. In fact, the Top Flite and other Spalding-owned intellectual property were a critical part of the 2003 Callaway purchase.
The ad campaign that Callaway just invested probably seven figures in turns out to hinge on truthiness. Still, Callaway would much rather use this advertising opportunity to boost sales rather than inventing and presenting better products to the golf consumer.
These days, a lot of the money that the golf companies make is earned in the courts. Lawsuits like this one happen time and time again. David Dawsey covers many of these intriguing legal debates at his Golf Patents website. The fact that there is a website devoted to golf technology patent filings and lawsuits indicates just how significant intellectual property is to the golf industry. In many ways, patents are viewed as almost more important than the physical stock itself.
Where does that leave you and I, the golfing public? Are we the real focus of the club manufacturers, or are patent lawyers? I'm not so certain that we are — at least to many of the major manufacturers. This lawsuit is a higher profile version of what happens on a daily basis in the golf industry. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of filed patents that manufacturers and others own just waiting for someone to infringe upon them. Some of the patents make it all the way to our pro shop shelves. Many more will never see the light of day — either because they are really far out there, or because they are bought in a trading market of lawsuits, settlements, and acquisitions.
Read some of the patent filings. Then go over to your golf bag and look at your set of irons. Are the irons that you have today really all that different than the irons you used to have?
How about your driver? It probably looks more like a square, but it caps out at 460cc and dimensions of five inches square.
Okay, your hybrid is definitely an innovation. The putter in your bag may well be, too.
Still, it doesn't seem like the golf consumer is getting everything that they can from the manufacturers. In fact, there is an unsubstantiated, long-standing rumor that the major manufacturers have products and innovations lined up for years. They're just waiting for you and I to become disinterested in what they're selling to us now.
After all, it probably takes anywhere between five and 10 years for regular golfers to cycle through a single innovation. People are still easing their way into Pro V1-styled golf balls. Since there are knockoffs and competitors for the same technology, we are obviously not at the end of this golf ball cycle yet. We're all buying them.
I suppose, then, that I'm about to propose something crazy. What I'm proposing is that the best way for you to get better golf equipment is to stop buying golf equipment. Remember that rumor that if everyone boycotted buying gas for a single day that the oil companies would almost certainly drop the price of oil by at least half? This proposal isn't on that end of the spectrum, but it is close.
Think about it. By and large, you and I are buying golf equipment that is mature and has been patented for years in advance of when we could even first acquire it. Acushnet acquired the patents for the Pro V1 in 1999 — two years before they came out. They've been reaping the benefits for almost 10 years now. Callaway is about to reap the benefits from a patent that another company filed and they never had the capital to employ.
So, if we're not getting all of the good things that could be up the sleeves of the manufacturers, then we are not likely to get them until we demand better. Sure, the Pro V1 and its conceptual cousins are the best golf balls that are made today. I cannot help but think, though, that there is better waiting in the wings. Provided, too, that the USGA has effectively capped so much of the creativity available for woods and irons, the golf ball seems the most plausible piece of equipment that could actually improve your game.
The concept may very well pay off. Doing something this ridiculous might get better products to market sooner. Even if the well is dry on the patent front — which I highly doubt — then perhaps the manufacturers will scurry for the next great innovation.
More still, in these difficult economic times, not spending $45 per dozen would help line all of our pockets. Callaway and Acushnet are fighting for a significant portion of the near $1 billion that you and I have spent on the Pro V1 alone. Why not let them play over old money and wait until something new comes out that? Then we can let them fight all over again.
It's a brutal cycle in the golf equipment world. But if the big wheel will keep on spinning anyway, why can't we make it go a little bit faster?
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