Legal and illegal clone golf clubs
(Excerpts from an interview with Pinemeadow Golf)
Me: What's the difference between your legal clone clubs and the kind of illegal copies we see getting confiscated by the likes of Callaway?
Guy Mount III: The latter are just flatly illegal. There are two types of counterfeit clubs that can be confiscated. There are the ones that truly say "Callaway" on them and are counterfeit.
The ones that are close to that would have a head that is virtually the same. I mean from an appearance standpoint you really couldn't tell the difference. But intead of saying "Big Bertha" on the medallion, it would say "Big Bursa".
We don't like either version - they give our industry a bad name.
Bryan O'Doherty: If a clubmaker is trying to confuse the consumer into thinking that they're buying, for example, Callaway or Nike or TaylorMade or Pinemeadow Golf, and is violating design and utility patents - those are illegal clubs.
We go to great lengths with the foundries that we're dealing with and on our website to make it crystal clear that we are not any of those brand entities.
Our clubs are not any of those entities' clubs; we are distinct and different.
We have performance characteristics that we think compete well with them. We have design families...just as there are design families for SUVs and for computers.
There are always these things that people would group into compatible or comparable families, but that doesn't mean the people are counterfeiting each other or knocking each other off.
But there are some that do. And we have problems in the website world with that kind of activity. Certainly in the software world and it also exists in the golf club world.
We've just never participated in that and never would. And those that do bring the whole industry down.
Guy Mount III: When it deteriorates to where someone's inventory is being seized and people are being put in jail, those people are really going over the top. And that's probably what you read in the papers. But if it comes to that point where people are going to jail, they really truly have violated the law.
Bryan O'Doherty: In fact, if we see product that we think is illegal, we pass that information on to the brands.
Next: Explain the difference between a clone golf club and a big-brand club...
