Acushnet wants to School Academy on Fake Balls
The Acushnet Company (makers of Titleist, FootJoy, Cobra, and Pinnacle golf brands) filed suit today in Federal District Court in Dallas against Academy Sports for counterfeiting and trademark infringement.
Provided the facts disclosed to the public are the whole story, Academy should be wanting to settle this one pretty quickly.
Acushnet claims that contrary to Academy’s claims it is not an authorized retailer of Titleist products and that Titleist Pro V1 golf balls found in several of its stores are actually counterfeits.
This is one of those situations in which someone is going to learn a hard lesson about not paying attention to demand letters as they come in. Acushnet claims it tried to communicate with Academy about this situation but had received no response by April 8, last Friday.
The lesson here for people who want to stay out of court, especially Federal court, is that letters asking to sit down and work something out should not be ignored. Even if you just need more time, asking for it is ever-so-much better than studious silence.
MickC @ April 11, 2005