Nobody’s Out in Baseball Webstream Patent Suit

MANHATTAN (CN) - When it comes to offering baseball fans condensed game broadcasts, "there is more than one way to skin a cat," a federal judge wrote in a ruling that means no-strikeout in lawsuits over a contested patent.

Baseball Quick and MLB Advanced Media have taken swings at each other in court the past three years over their competing technologies that strip downtime from ballgames for web viewers' faster enjoyment.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest noted that each company's algorithm offers a different pitch, in a 23-page opinion issued Thursday.

MLB "uses a subjective editing process focused on copying and pasting material, whereas BQ's is objective and focused on deleting material," the opinion states.

She granted MLB's motion for a judgment declaring that its technology does not infringe its competitor's patent.

MLB still has a remaining counterclaim asking to declare Baseball Quick's patent invalid.

The parties must notify the court about the scheduling of that claim on Dec. 12.

Baseball Quick's lawyer Matthew Murphey, from Troutman Sanders LLP, said in an email statement that his client "continues to analyze the ruling issued yesterday, and consider its next steps."

MLB Advanced Media is represented by Cynthia Rigsby and Kevin Malaney of Foley & Lardner. They declined to comment.

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