One of Costco’s latest choices, Kirkland Signature-brand golf golf equipment, has landed the Issaquah, Washington-based retailer in authorized bother.
In a patent infringement lawsuit filed final month, Carlsbad, California-based golf gear firm TaylorMade alleged Costco’s sold-out $499.99 Kirkland Signature golf equipment are equivalent to its $1,399 P790 irons.
Costco started promoting Kirkland Signature golf equipment in December. According to the lawsuit, Costco’s producers had a workforce that included a former TaylorMade engineer who had labored on the firm in the course of the growth of P790, which launched in 2017.
Costco declined to touch upon the lawsuit. The producer, Southern California Design Company, didn’t reply to inquiries.
“The design of the accused products directly copies the patented features of the P790 irons, including features covered by the asserted patents,” attorneys for TaylorMade stated within the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court of Southern California.
The lawsuit additionally alleges Costco’s claims that the golf equipment have premium options equivalent to an “injected urethane insert” are unfaithful. As a consequence, in accordance with the lawsuit, Costco misled the general public to imagine the golf equipment “are similar to or equivalent to the TaylorMade P790 irons.”
TaylorMade stated its P790 irons “revolutionized the filled-iron category.” The lawsuit can also be meant to guard golfers “who may be duped and misled into thinking cheaper imitations will perform at the same level as the original,” the corporate stated in an electronic mail.
This is just not the primary time Costco has been sued for its golf merchandise.
In 2017, Acushnet, a Massachusetts-based golf product firm, which owns the Titleist model, sued Costco for patent infringement and false promoting associated to its Kirkland Signature golf balls. The case was dismissed the next yr.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”