By : CHARIS ANDERSON
Source : http://www.southcoasttoday.com
Category : Patent Infringement
After years of legal wrangling, Acushnet Co. and Callaway Golf have resolved their differences out of court, agreeing to a settlement of all pending litigation and disputes.
The settlement comes more than six years after the companies first faced off over patent-infringement concerns.
Details of the settlement are confidential but no money changed hands, according to a statement released by Acushnet Co.
Each company will have specified rights to make golf balls and club products under patents owned by the other company, according to the statement.
Acushnet Co., which manufactures the hugely successful Pro V1 line of golf balls, is one of SouthCoast's largest employers with about 1,800 people in its Titleist/Foot Joy division, which is headquartered in Fairhaven.
The conflict between the companies dates to January 2006, when Acushnet Co. filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for a reexamination of four golf-ball patents that are owned by Callaway, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based company.
Callaway countered a month later with a patent-infringement lawsuit against Acushnet Co.
The patents in question involve technological breakthroughs in producing multilayer, solid-core golf balls.
The re-examination and the lawsuit proceeded on parallel tracks for a number of years.
Last year, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences affirmed Acushnet Co.'s contention that the four patents were invalid, a ruling that was followed about six weeks later by a judgment in favor of Acushnet Co. in Delaware's U.S. District Court.
Callaway appealed that judgment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to court records.
The settlement announced last week resolves the golf ball suits and other disputes between the parties, according to a statement.
Source : http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120418/NEWS05/204180319/1018/OPINION
No comments:
Post a Comment