Why don't consumers boycott the trolls out of existence? It's not like there is a huge cost of switching golf balls, right? And the consumer base isn't companies whose deciders spend someone else's money.
A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
91–100 of 280 posts
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#92I love Costco. They pay good wages (with benefits), have good quality products, and great prices. They have a kick ass return policy. And they stick it to patent trolls. Fuck yeah, Costco. Keep it up.
First decent reply.
Upvoted.
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about your vision is such that dailies can't correct for it, but other contacts can? Is it that you can't make use of "soft" contacts in general for this, or just (presumably) that making contacts to correct for this would be sufficiently costly for daily disposibles as to be infeasible?
Not the parent, but in my case - mild astigmatism - dailies are too big and floppy and don't stay put on my eye. 14 or 30 day are thicker and easier to put in. I use them rarely - just for skiing, and I end up using the 14 day ones once or twice and then throwing them away. But the daily ones are just mechanically awkward and uncomfortable.
I have found a few dailies that correct fairly severe astigmatism and is comfortable to wear. They work, when they stay put. Unfortunately they tend to rotate ever so slightly every now and then, and it so annoying that I'm back to glasses
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#94Costco sued J&J Vision Care a few years ago over anti-consumer behavior in the contact lenses industry (I characterize it as anti-consumer. The Vision Care industry characterizes it as pro-consumer). They dropped the lawsuit in 2016, probably because Johnson and Johnson discontinued the practice: https://www.law360.com/articles/800034/costco-drops-antitrus... Costco did support a different lawsuit by state of Utah ag…
WRT prices of contact lenses, I use an ultrasonic contact lens cleaner with plain saline (Ringer's will also work if that is cheaper in your area), then storing the contact lenses in my lens solution to disinfect. Far better comfort profile, for far longer, than I ever obtained following the manufacturer instructions of 20 seconds rubbing on each side, and 5 seconds rinsing on each side. The saline is half as much as…
Get LASIK. Having perfect eyesight and not having to deal with contacts or glasses is worth every penny.
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fact there is a high barrier of entry might be one of the only appeals golf has at all? Playing it is a status symbol. Although, I think maybe that elite status symbols themselves may be on a downswing, maybe because of the growing awareness of wealth inequality? Super rich people used to ride around in stretch limos and people found it interesting and exciting, now there's a growing perception that's disgusting…
You can play for $20 or less at Muni courses. Hardly a status symbol tbh. If you mean private country clubs, well the most exclusive and high status of these are often social clubs rather than golf clubs (ex: Pacific Union and Bohemian Club in SF), and the activity of golf and the private club status symbol are separate things. Though... I have heard several times that "cycling is the new golf", and the $10,000 bikes…
I'm going to guess you live in or near San Francisco? Your view of golf is going to be skewed by that. While the Bay Area has extremely expensive and exclusive golf courses, it also uniquely has .. relatively.. affordable ones.
But consider even $20 to play a game involving a stick and ball is actually still quite expensive to a child, so that's still a really high barrier to entry for a lot of people.
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
WRT prices of contact lenses, I use an ultrasonic contact lens cleaner with plain saline (Ringer's will also work if that is cheaper in your area), then storing the contact lenses in my lens solution to disinfect. Far better comfort profile, for far longer, than I ever obtained following the manufacturer instructions of 20 seconds rubbing on each side, and 5 seconds rinsing on each side. The saline is half as much as…
Get LASIK. Having perfect eyesight and not having to deal with contacts or glasses is worth every penny.
A risk of ending up with halos is not worth it.
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you missed the part where they implied these lawsuits are often completely without merit. It's abuse of the parent system to stifle competition, and we're supposed to believe business owners just shrug it off after they're bullied into bankruptcy? > “We weren’t infringing. But we couldn’t afford to fight the case,” he says. Instead, his company settled the 2015 claims with Acushnet by agreeing to get out of t…
If the cases were settled out of court then we have no reliable way to determine whether they had merit. It's just speculation by the writer and interviewees.
The writer wants us to simultaneously believe that the cases were without merit, but were "a legitimate business tactic".
A writer can try to be an objective observer, or they can pick a side, but trying to pick both sides is just confusing.
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Ho hum, we've been driven out of business by legal maneuvering, but it's all in good sport." You don't often see such a laissez-faire attitude towards one's livelihood amongst small businesses.
One reason to be so nonchalant would be that the guy did in fact copy someone's patents wholesale, and was just waiting for the day someone would notice. If you know the lawsuit is unwinnable and not frivolous, no point complaining about it.
According to article this is not the case here:
> “We weren’t infringing. But we couldn’t afford to fight the case,” he says. Instead, his company settled the 2015 claims with Acushnet by agreeing to get out of the golf-ball business altogether; it received no payment from Acushnet, nor did it pay.
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whether that's true or not, I don't think it's enough to rely on the invisible hand to squelch this practice. The truth is, as long as it is advantageous to sue frivolously, companies will do it. And this is bad for the free market, the economy, and consumers. Policy change should make it much more costly to launch a frivolous lawsuit (as distinct from a claim made in good faith), e.g. by making it much easier for a…
Similar to the email spam proposals, charge a modest fee for each motion filed. Set it at a point that isn't a barrier for anyone filing a "normal" amount of motions, but where it increases to real money if your main business is filing large amounts of know-it-will-fail paperwork.
How did this work?
Re: A lawsuit over Costco golf balls
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get LASIK. Having perfect eyesight and not having to deal with contacts or glasses is worth every penny.
A risk of ending up with halos is not worth it.
Or worse. It's the reason I'll never have the surgery... the risk is very small but if something were to happen to my eyesight it would be devastating. Glasses aren't so bad.