Golf Firms Engage In Hissing Contest Cobra Golf Claims Spokane Importerinfringes On Trademark

Cobra Golf Inc., the second largest maker of premium golf equipment in the United States, claims in a U.S. District Court lawsuit that a small Spokane importer of golf club components is infringing on its trademarks.

And Cobra obtained a restraining order last month that has severely hampered Bridgehouse International Inc. operations pending a trial, President Terry Gould said Monday.

Bridgehouse has responded by countersuing Cobra, in part challenging the validity of the trademarks.

“We need protection,” Gould said Monday. “It now looks inevitable that we’re going to have to file bankruptcy.”

An angry Gould said a broad asset freeze imposed by Judge Napoleon Jones in San Diego has tied up Bridgehouse finances so tightly the company has not been able to pay its vendors.

Even a bid to continue doing business on a cash basis has been stymied by Cobra, which refuses to let Bridgehouse pay a $350,000 bond with a cashier’s check, he said.

But Cobra attorney Tony Stiegler said a cashier’s check puts Cobra in a less favorable position in the event Bridgehouse does file bankruptcy.

He quickly added that Cobra hopes Bridgehouse avoids seeking protection because the San Diego company would recover more in damages from the lawsuit.

Bridgehouse, founded last November, operates out of a small warehouse in the Spokane Airport Business Park. The company imports golf club heads, shafts and grips and sells them to clubmakers around the country.

The 10-employee firm did about $5000,000 per month in sales before Cobra filed its lawsuit, Gould said.

San Diego-based Cobra did $124 million in business last year. The company’s primary products are oversized clubs sold under the registered names King Cobra and Lady Cobra.

Bridgehouse imports components with the names King Snake and Crown Viper, among others. These infringe on Cobra trademarks, according to Cobra’s lawsuit.

Gould denies there is any infringement. He said he retained a Spokane patent firm to assess the potential for a problem before importing the parts, and was told the possibility was small.

Now, Gould said, attorneys he has retained in San Diego to fight Cobra question the validity of the trademark protection altogether.

He said the lawsuit is less about trademark infringement, and more about the inroads independent clubmakers are making in a business once dominated by companies like Cobra and No. 1 premium maker Calloway Golf.

But Gould’s ability to battle Cobra stroke-for-stroke in litigation ebbs as his business struggles with restrictions imposed before he even knew he was being sued.

Papers notifying him of the lawsuit and the temporary restraining order arrived just minutes before Bridgehouse’s banker called with word the firm’s assets had been frozen, as well as those of Gould and his wife.

Stiegler said the freeze was necessary because club counterfeiters, as he called them, frequently close and reopen under different names, frustrating efforts to recover damages from them.

The restraining order, loosened somewhat since it was first imposed, is intended only to block movement of assets away from the reach of the court and Cobra, not put Bridgehouse out of business, he said.

, DataTimes