Titleist Appeals Patent Decision

NEW BEDFORD — The Acushnet Co. has appealed its loss in a patent dispute over its Titleist Pro V1 golf balls to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to company officials.

Chairman and CEO Wally Uihlein said that one of the key arguments working in favor of Titleist is the decision reached by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that the four Callaway-owned patents in question should never have been issued in the first place.

As Callaway Golf Co. advanced its lawsuit, the court did not permit the jury to know about the patent office's decision.

"We believe this resulted in the trial court coming to the wrong conclusion," Mr. Uihlein said in a prepared statement.

On Nov. 10, U.S. District Court Judge Sue Robinson issued a permanent injunction to block Acushnet Co. from selling Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls after Jan. 1.

But the company countered by announcing that it has redesigned the balls for the fourth time and the disputed patents are no longer in use in the revised product, which will be rolled out in the first months of the new year. Mr. Uihlein said that the new balls exceed the performance of the previous ones, which are by far the most successful golf ball.

Callaway, which is seeking unspecified damages, itself doesn't use the patents, which it acquired with the purchase of Spalding-Top Flite, which filed them in 2001 and 2003, after the Pro V1 was introduced.

Mr. Uihlein said players on the worldwide professional golf tours can use the new 2009 Pro V1 models when the tour schedules resume in January. "The new 2009 models will feature different side stamps and packaging and appear as different listings on the USGA Conforming Ball List," Mr. Uihlein said.

New Titleist 909 Drivers

Fairhaven, MA (October 3, 2008) – Adding another chapter to its successful history of creating high performance drivers for players competing across the worldwide professional tours, club professionals, better players and aspiring golfers, Titleist introduces the new 909 line of drivers. A three driver family, the 909 DComp, 909D2 and 909D3 models feature a modern high performance chassis with tour approved profiles engineered to meet and exceed the performance requirements of skilled players. Each 909 driver is engineered with its own precisely positioned center of gravity to produce distinct launch conditions and ball flights. The result gives Titleist the ability to offer a new level of precision driver fitting to maximize distance potential and improve overall driving performance.

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“Prior to the 909 driver development project, we conducted extensive testing with tour and club professionals, and better playing amateur golfers,” said Dan Stone, Vice President, Research and Development, Titleist Golf Clubs. “The research showed there is a significant variation in swing speeds and angles of attack when delivering the club to impact. It was clear from this research that different players require different performance characteristics from their driver head in order to maximize distance. Ultimately, we designed three distinct drivers to meet the launch requirements and ball flight preferences across all better player swing variations.”

Titleist 909 drivers deliver superior looks, feel and sound along with the core performance requirements that have made Titleist titanium drivers one of the top choices of tour players, PGA club professionals, and top competitive amateurs for more than a decade. Titleist 909 drivers are designed with center of gravity locations that are deeper and lower than those of any previous generation Titleist driver models. This evolution results in greater club head stability through impact, solid feel, improved initial launch conditions and superior downrange performance.

“Our mission is to provide products that will allow better players to play their best,” said Steve Pelisek, General Manager Titleist Golf Clubs. “In terms of performance, the new 909s are our most technologically advanced for launch, ball flight, sound and solid feel. When you also consider the advancements we continue to make in club fitting expertise with the new SureFit Interchangeable Fitting System, we have the ability to optimize driving performance for virtually every golfer in our target audience.”

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