Callaway Golf and Taiwan Government Cooperate in Raids

Against Golf Club Counterfeiters Carlsbad, Calif. (ots-PRNewswire) - Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY), announced today that it has cooperated with government authorities in carrying out three raids against golf club counterfeiters in Taiwan. The raids were targeted against counterfeit Callaway Golf products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the U.S. and other foreign markets. The successful actions in Taiwan come in the wake of "Project Teed Off," a U.S. Customs "sting" executed in February 1999 that resulted in the arrest of twelve persons, among them several Taiwanese citizens. The raids in Taiwan were carried out on April 14th by officials of the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for the enforcement of intellectual property laws in Taiwan. Raided were Liang Sheng Golf, Blue Whale Enterprises, Ltd., and Ta Sheng Industries. The three raided businesses were all located in Fengyuan City, a suburb of the capital city, Taipei. Officials arrested two persons -- Chang Chu-Ping and Liu Tai-Chi -- and seized approximately a thousand counterfeit "Callaway Golf" golf club components, including almost a hundred fully assembled counterfeit irons and metal woods. Steven C. McCracken, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Callaway Golf, expressed his satisfaction with the actions of Taiwanese authorities. "We welcomed the opportunity to work with our Taiwanese colleagues. These arrests and the February arrests by the U.S. Customs Service should send a warning to the makers of illegal counterfeits of our golf clubs," Mr. McCracken added. Callaway Golf Company makes and sells Big Bertha(R) Metal Woods and Irons, including Great Big Bertha(R) Hawk Eye(R) Titanium Metal Woods, Big Bertha(R) Steelhead(TM) Stainless Steel Metal Woods, Big Bertha(R) X-12(TM) Stainless Steel Irons, Great Big Bertha(R) TungstenTitanium(TM) Irons, and Bobby Jones(R) and Carlsbad Series(TM) putters. Callaway Golf Company also makes and sells Odyssey(R) putters and wedges with Stronomic(R) and Lyconite(R) inserts. For more information about Callaway Golf Company, visit our Web site on the Internet at http://www.callawaygolf.com. ots Original Text Service: Callaway Golf Company Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Larry Dorman of Callaway Golf Company (USA) 760-931-1771 Web site: http://www.callawaygolf.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT