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Cleveland sues Callaway, claiming trademark

Texasbrons said:
I don't see this going anywhere. The name "Cleveland Golf" is what is trademarked. That doesn't preclude him from signing his name Roger Cleveland to a product. Plenty of precedence has been set for this as well. Domino's Pizza was sued by Domino's sugar years and years ago on the exact same principle and the only people that got rich was the lawyers. Needless to say, Domino's pizza didn't have to change their name. This just sounds like sour grapes to me, more than anything else. We'll see where it goes though, common sense doesn't always win, and it seldom applies once you get an attorney involved, (sorry manlai and philly!!, You know I like you two. You're two of the GOOD, FRIENDLY, lawyers, LOL).
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the difference is that with your example no one is going to confuse a sugar company with a pizza company.

the argument can be made in this case that it can lead to confusion since they are in the same industry
 
#lawyered
 
Texasbrons said:
I don't see this going anywhere. The name "Cleveland Golf" is what is trademarked. That doesn't preclude him from signing his name Roger Cleveland to a product. Plenty of precedence has been set for this as well. Domino's Pizza was sued by Domino's sugar years and years ago on the exact same principle and the only people that got rich was the lawyers. Needless to say, Domino's pizza didn't have to change their name. This just sounds like sour grapes to me, more than anything else. We'll see where it goes though, common sense doesn't always win, and it seldom applies once you get an attorney involved, (sorry manlai and philly!!, You know I like you two. You're two of the GOOD, FRIENDLY, lawyers, LOL).
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There is one major difference in the cases.
The employee at Dominos Pizza was not also the founder of Dominos Sugar and neither sold the same product.
 
I agree, this should be interesting to follow. Personally I would guess that Roger can use his own name unless it as Wake said.

Wake said:
Cleveland comparing the two says the opposite.

It will be interesting to see how this works out. I don't know how they could restrict roger from using his own name if there isn't a none compete or similar in place.
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I would think Rodger Cleveland had a non compete and rights to his name. I don't see how thy have a case and why this would be filled so late. Unless Callaway is kicking some Cleveland butt in the Wedge department
 
Renren89 said:
the difference is that with your example no one is going to confuse a sugar company with a pizza company.

the argument can be made in this case that it can lead to confusion since they are in the same industry
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But that was exactly what the premise of the lawsuit was. Domino's sugar was claiming that people would think that the pizza company was owned and operated by them. Or more precisely, that Domino's sugar was used in the pizza product in any way.

I would contend that the vast majority of golfers don't know who "Roger Cleveland" is. I know I wouldn't have. So they wouldn't necessarily make the direct connection with Cleveland Golf. If you're a business owner or patent owner of a product and your last name happened to be Cleveland, then Cleveland Golf could potentially sue you for your product and that just isn't the case.

JB, you bring up a valid point, and while the name is spelled the same, (being the same person), there is no trademark infringement either. The Cleveland Golf logo is more of a script font, while on the MD2, it is in block letters with no scripting, so other than the spelling, there is no similarity to trademark of "Cleveland Golf", so you have that distinction as well.
 
Should get kicked out rather quickly...
 
Tadashi70 said:
I would think Rodger Cleveland had a non compete and rights to his name. I don't see how thy have a case and why this would be filled so late. Unless Callaway is kicking some Cleveland butt in the Wedge department
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I wont go into details about too much here but will say this.
Cleveland wedges are not being outsold by them

And for 10 years he has worked for Callaway and they never had his name on a wedge. Now they do. All of the sudden the company said "Well, we have this Cleveland guy, maybe we should put his name on the wedge".

Guys, there is definitely more to this than meets the eye.
 
JB said:
I wont go into details about too much here but will say this.
Cleveland wedges are not being outsold by them

And for 10 years he has worked for Callaway and they never had his name on a wedge. Now they do. All of the sudden the company said "Well, we have this Cleveland guy, maybe we should put his name on the wedge".

Guys, there is definitely more to this than meets the eye.
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Is it safe to say that this has been brewing for awhile and the name on the wedge was the last straw?
 
JB said:
And for 10 years he has worked for Callaway and they never had his name on a wedge. Now they do. All of the sudden the company said "Well, we have this Cleveland guy, maybe we should put his name on the wedge".

Guys, there is definitely more to this than meets the eye.
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When I first saw pics of the MD2 I was wondering why they chose now to put his name on the wedges.
Wanna clue us in? :act-up:
 
JB said:
I wont go into details about too much here but will say this.
Cleveland wedges are not being outsold by them

And for 10 years he has worked for Callaway and they never had his name on a wedge. Now they do. All of the sudden the company said "Well, we have this Cleveland guy, maybe we should put his name on the wedge".

Guys, there is definitely more to this than meets the eye.
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I knew it. Roger Cleveland is a Transformer.

We're through the looking glass here, people.
 
ATLGolfer said:
I knew it. Roger Cleveland is a Transformer.

We're through the looking glass here, people.
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Sorry that's for blugold to decide.
 
JB said:
I wont go into details about too much here but will say this.
Cleveland wedges are not being outsold by them

And for 10 years he has worked for Callaway and they never had his name on a wedge. Now they do. All of the sudden the company said "Well, we have this Cleveland guy, maybe we should put his name on the wedge".

Guys, there is definitely more to this than meets the eye.
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There always is, I want to see how this shakes out.
 
Even if there is a non compete, if the stipulated time ran out, it's still his name. Maybe Cally was waiting to put his name on it until that time had expired.
 
Matthew said:
Even if there is a non compete, if the stipulated time ran out, it's still his name. Maybe Cally was waiting to put his name on it until that time had expired.
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That's what I was wondering, too. I don't have a law degree, but even I could look at a noncompeting clause on piece of paper and tell you..."Guys, you can't put his name on ANYTHING until this date right here." (pointing to date on paper).

I'll be curious to see how this shakes out.
 
Agent Jay said:
That's what I was wondering, too. I don't have a law degree, but even I could look at a noncompeting clause on piece of paper and tell you..."Guys, you can't put his name on ANYTHING until this date right here." (pointing to date on paper).

I'll be curious to see how this shakes out.
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I currently have one and can promise you before I signed it, I know exactly what I can & can't do if/when I leave this company. But I have stayed at a bunch of Holiday Inn's.
 
Matthew said:
I currently have one and can promise you before I signed it, I know exactly what I can & can't do if/when I leave this company. But I have stayed at a bunch of Holiday Inn's.
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ha ha ha Exactly. I would think this would be the primary reason that there hasn't been anything with Mr. Cleveland's name on it until this year. I may be wrong, but that has to be in the 101 class at lawyer school, right? A name, by itself (Cleveland) could be covered in a naming/patient rights, but since it has his whole name and obviously no Cleveland logo's, is that enough to earn a lawsuit? Seems a little like throwing darts blindfolded. I'm sure there is WAY more to this than I know, but that's my take as of now.
 
All depends on what Roger agreed to when he sold out I'd guess. Not sure I see what Cleveland Golf is worried about. Roger Cleveland did in fact design those wedges.......
 
Matthew said:
Even if there is a non compete, if the stipulated time ran out, it's still his name. Maybe Cally was waiting to put his name on it until that time had expired.
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That's kinda what I was thinking too...the non compete expired and Callaway jumped on putting his name on the wedges
 
I agree that there is a reason Callaway waited so long to put his name on the wedge and I also agree that they were already prepared for this.

I am actually considering an MD2 60 as my next LW. Maybe they will be uber discounted...lol.
 
This is interesting to say the least....

Nissan Motors has been suing a guy named Uzi Nissan for years over his computer business website www.nissan.com saying that it's copyright infringement and "cyber squatting" because they want that website name. He's been holding on for years now because he can prove that he ran and owned Nissan Computers here in the United States since 1976, when Nissan was known as Datsun here. They've spent millions trying to get the website from him and last time wanted $10 million in damages.

So far, he's won everything Nissan Motors has thrown at him.

I know it's not exactly the same, but another man's name involved in a lawsuit that I thought some may find interesting.
 
Bullitt5339 said:
This is interesting to say the least....

Nissan Motors has been suing a guy named Uzi Nissan for years over his computer business website www.nissan.com saying that it's copyright infringement and "cyber squatting" because they want that website name. He's been holding on for years now because he can prove that he ran and owned Nissan Computers here in the United States since 1976, when Nissan was known as Datsun here. They've spent millions trying to get the website from him and last time wanted $10 million in damages.

So far, he's won everything Nissan Motors has thrown at him.

I know it's not exactly the same, but another man's name involved in a lawsuit that I thought some may find interesting.
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Just read up on this a bit, that's interesting stuff.
 
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. It will be intersting to see how Cleveland's lawyers try to make the case that Callaway cant use the name of someone who is no longer affiliated with the Cleveland brand to market their wedges. It certainly makes Cleveland look like a hypocrite when the Smart Square is totally a 2-Ball copycat.
 
Badger_Golfer said:
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. It will be intersting to see how Cleveland's lawyers try to make the case that Callaway cant use the name of someone who is no longer affiliated with the Cleveland brand to market their wedges. It certainly makes Cleveland look like a hypocrite when the Smart Square is totally a 2-Ball copycat.
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Couple of things.
Callaway did not create the 2 ball.
How is it anymore of a copy than every company making Anser Style putters? Because it has an alignment aid done with shapes? Wouldnt every single putter with similar dot alignments be a direct copy of others?
Wouldnt it make every golf ball made with a solid core a copy?
Wouldnt it make every adjustable driver a copy of Nike?
Wouldnt it make every driver with adjustable loft a copy of Cobra?
 
JB said:
Couple of things.
Callaway did not create the 2 ball.
How is it anymore of a copy than every company making Anser Style putters? Because it has an alignment aid done with shapes? Wouldnt every single putter with similar dot alignments be a direct copy of others?
Wouldnt it make every golf ball made with a solid core a copy?
Wouldnt it make every adjustable driver a copy of Nike?
Wouldnt it make every driver with adjustable loft a copy of Cobra?
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Never thought of any of that besides the anser style head.
 
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