TAYLORMADE FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST COSTCO OVER KIRKLAND SIGNATURE IRONS

[GolfSpy BOS]

https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/taylormade-files-lawsuit-against-costco-over-kirkland-signature-irons/

 

Big news dropping today!

Click over to the full story to read more but here are the highlights:

• Yesterday, TaylorMade filed a lawsuit against Costco Wholesale and Southern California Design Company over willful patent infringement in regards to Costco’s new Kirkland Signature Players Irons.
• Not surprisingly this is due to similarity with the P-790 irons.  I mean, who didn't see that coming right?
• Sort of surprisingly SCDC (Southern California Design Company) is believed to be the manufacturer of the Kirkland irons appears to also be tied to brand Indi Golf.
• Also noted in the claims is that the Costco irons do not actually contain any urethane inserts as advertised.

 

I'm sure we'll hear more as the story progresses.

 

What do you spies think?

[CFreddie]

What do I think? Better buy up one of the last remaining sets as they could be collector's items soon! 

But seriously, I'm not shocked - they bear a striking resemblance to the 790s (as you called out).  The urethane exclusion is pretty surprising (even in light of the Caley "controversy" recently).

[GolfSpy BOS]

Personally I'm not at all surprised that the Kirkland irons got the attention of TaylorMade.  I think every video review I saw on the Kirkland's had some mention of the P-790 in it.  That's not to say they are the only goo-filled hollow-body players distance iron, but it seemed like it was more than being in the same category.  I couldn't tell you what patents TM has for the P-790 but I don't blame them for exercising their right if there is indeed infringement on them.   

 

I'm almost more interested in the false advertising claims and finding out the story on that and learning more about SCDC.

[Josh Parker]

I'm not surprised at all.  Actually more surprised this hasn't happened with a few companies but then again no one has been as big ($$$$) as Costco to use a design almost identical. 

[BringerofRain]

I think this will only help Costco Sell their Irons unless the court issues a temporary restraining  order while the case is ongoing.  I think that’s what it’s called. I did graduate 10 years ago. Memory a little hazy. 
 

However if my memory is correct last time Costco was sued they lost because their ball was too close to the PROV1. 
 

Whoever got those clubs appears to got a nice W

[snoopy79]

I think it really isn't a shocker at all. All this hype on the looks and then the reviews really started to pile on about their similarities to TM made it a big target. A bit of drama and intrigue on these KSIG sticks is gonna make them even harder to get a hold of.

Get em while you can

Edited February 1 by snoopy79

[KC Golf]

To me this seems like quite the surprise. 

Costco supplier knowing infringing on TM intellectual property is something you would have thought they would have learned from in other products. Not just golf.  

Litigation is not cheap so it will be interesting where this leads. 

[msanagustin]

I did read about the similarities in an article, honestly as we all experience, the cost of equipment is insane. I think as long as Costco didn't infringe on any pattents it's proof that gear can be made affordable....and their recourse is to tie it up in legal process to delay....if I find them in my store I'd probably get them purely on price point to try.

[Shrek74]

51 minutes ago, GolfSpy BOS said:

https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/taylormade-files-lawsuit-against-costco-over-kirkland-signature-irons/

 

Big news dropping today!

Click over to the full story to read more but here are the highlights:

• Yesterday, TaylorMade filed a lawsuit against Costco Wholesale and Southern California Design Company over willful patent infringement in regards to Costco’s new Kirkland Signature Players Irons.
• Not surprisingly this is due to similarity with the P-790 irons.  I mean, who didn't see that coming right?
• Sort of surprisingly SCDC (Southern California Design Company) is believed to be the manufacturer of the Kirkland irons appears to also be tied to brand Indi Golf.
• Also noted in the claims is that the Costco irons do not actually contain any urethane inserts as advertised.

 

I'm sure we'll hear more as the story progresses.

 

What do you spies think?

So are they filing lawsuits against Sub70, Takomo, Caley, Haywood, Mizuno, Callaway, Cobra, and every other brand for the same thing? They all have hollow-body irons at this point.

PXG could file suit against Taylormade since their Gen1 hollow-body came out before the P790's did.

[vandyland]

1 hour ago, CFreddie said:

(even in light of the Caley "controversy" recently).

What is the caley controversy?

[CFreddie]

Long story short - Caley advertised their irons included foam and tungsten, which apparently wasn’t true. Not a good look, but at least they are admitting fault and offering refunds. 

[BallsLeon]

Idea for MGS HQ article: "How to tell if your Player's Distance iron has goo in it or not?"

[MattWillGolf]

Golf certainly has a history of “borrowing” design features. Ping “Ansers” appear in the portfolios of nearly every manufacturer as well as boutique putter makers. Not sure how this is any different. But maybe a legal expert can comment.

[Stovetop11]

Saw that one coming. 

[Wheelieb]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Titleist went after them as well for their driver for how it looks. Everyone that has reviewed it has said it looks eerily similar to the titleist drivers. That’s not a good look for Costco. 

[BringerofRain]

41 minutes ago, Wheelieb said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if Titleist went after them as well for their driver for how it looks. Everyone that has reviewed it has said it looks eerily similar to the titleist drivers. That’s not a good look for Costco. 

I personally love it from Costco. I hope they lose the lawsuit proving you can make the same quality of clubs for 1/3 of the price. 
 

[Wheelieb]

53 minutes ago, BringerofRain said:

I personally love it from Costco. I hope they lose the lawsuit proving you can make the same quality of clubs for 1/3 of the price. 
 

Oh I’m just saying it wouldn’t surprise me if it happened. If it did and these companies won against Costco, more people would be questioning why they are charging so much. 

[Another Steve]

4 hours ago, Shrek74 said:

So are they filing lawsuits against Sub70, Takomo, Caley, Haywood, Mizuno, Callaway, Cobra, and every other brand for the same thing? They all have hollow-body irons at this point.

PXG could file suit against Taylormade since their Gen1 hollow-body came out before the P790's did.

TM had the ICW 3 and ICW 11 irons back in the mid 1990’s. Hollow body, foam filled, internal perimeter weighting. I still have mine and game them every so often. The problems I had with thw ICW’s were they could not be bent more that ~1* per TM and they just plain gnawed the cover off the ball.

[Rob Person]

I'm thinking that 75% of these dtc companies are cast from the same hubs over the world. Not sure if them being a degree or few mm's different will save them in the end. What I do know is that making decent golf equipent affordable,  probably impacted their quarterly numbers enough to grab the attention of a few corporate honchos. 

[jbern]

6 hours ago, GolfSpy BOS said:

I'm almost more interested in the false advertising claims and finding out the story on that and learning more about SCDC.

I agree! That is very interesting!

I do remember someone telling me the Kirkland’s were supposed to have the King of the goos in those things! Turns out it’s hollow

[BigJerry]

huge news coming out of the big machine! I saw a comment on a post on instagram along the lines of "taylormade are basically telling everyone you can get the same irons at Costco for $1000 dollars less" - thought this was quite funny.

[BringerofRain]

I thought everyone would be interested in this paragraph from the specific complaint indicating  patent infringement  

The complaint isn’t that long but this was by far the most interesting part. 

 

 

Edited February 2 by BringerofRain

[GolfSpy_APH]

This whole thing is really interesting!

[Ping_Ping]

Does Costco put a pause on selling more Kirkland Irons or do they keep pumping them out to the masses...  This is going to build the hype even more if they continue to sell them.

[Josh Parker]

1 hour ago, BringerofRain said:

I thought everyone would be interested in this paragraph from the specific complaint indicating  patent infringement  

The complaint isn’t that long but this was by far the most interesting part. 

 

 

Very interesting paragraph.  It will be interesting to see how things play out.

[Rob Person]

Sounds like Somebody is salty they lost a good engineer! And being that he is clearly a good design engineer, surely he was smart enough to make necessary changes to keep then from being too similar

[Wheelieb]

25 minutes ago, Rob Person said:

Sounds like Somebody is salty they lost a good engineer! And being that he is clearly a good design engineer, surely he was smart enough to make necessary changes to keep then from being too similar

To Taylormade it was way to similar so they had to file suit in their mind. Don’t want someone selling what you’re already selling, and for less

[ParFore74x]

It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out. One would assume that the engineers behind the Kirklands would be careful not to infringe upon and patents but who knows. 

[JAYER38]

I believe once the suit is filed they have to stop sales until it is resolved but I'm sure that's somewhere in the fine print we wont get to see. I can only speak from my basic knowledge after staying at a holiday inn express haha

[taylorjonasher]

All I can think about is the lawyer fees that Costco will be hemorrhaging over this, and if my f'ng hot dog and Pepsi goes up above a $1.59 to offset this I'm going to be livid.