Score one for the little guy

So what do you do if you have a clever idea or catchy product, and some behemoth corporation comes along and blatantly rips it off?

If you’re BogeyPro, the irreverant Minnesota-based golf gear company for the rest of us, you fight.

BogeyPro co-founder Arik Nordby recently told me how a friend of his was paging through one of the big slick golf magazines, and noticed that the ad for ESPN Golf Schools was using an illustration that was nearly identical to one of BogeyPro’s most popular shirts, one that illustrates how best to throw your golf bag.

“I contacted their advertising agency and we reached a fair agreement. It went pretty smoothly,” says Nordby. “They paid us a one-time license fee to use the ‘How To Throw Your Bag’ illustrations for print ads. No T-shirt use or apparel.”

Sounds pretty amicable, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, Nordby did add, “Thank God it’s over.”

Fighting the big guy is never easy, even if you’re right and even if you do win.

So what are the guys at BogeyPro doing with their windfall? Putting it back into the company, beefing up advertising, and enduring the drudgery of building a business out of a clever idea.

But don’t feel too bad for them. Part of that “drudgery” included a trip to L.A. and a visit to the Playboy Mansion with the Dahm Triplets, company spokeswomen and Playboy models. According to Nordby, he didn’t get to meet Hef, but “I met Ron Jeremy. He strolled around the mansion like he owned the place. Nice guy.”

You go, little guy!