Princeton Video Image (PVI) and Sportvision are
"wrestling over the intellectual property behind the high-
tech sports graphics they provide," according to Glen
Dickson of BROADCASTING & CABLE. PVI has filed a request
with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office "disputing the
ownership of U.S. Patent 5,917,553," which is held by Fox
Sports and currently licensed to Sportvision, the supplier
of "1st and Ten" graphics to Fox, ABC and ESPN. The patent
"covers using field-of-view data from broadcast cameras to
place virtual images within a video image or highlight a
target image." PVI "contends" that the "basic subject
matter" of the patent belongs to PVI. PVI President & CEO
Dennis Wilkinson: "It's a subject of legitimate disagreement
about who invented the technology." Meanwhile, Sportvision
and Fox Sports have filed a suit charging that PVI is
"infringing" on the Patent when the company generates its
virtual first-down marker which it provides for CBS.
Sportvision CTO Stan Honey: "This technology was stuff we
were working on in the final stages of FoxTrax. The way we
do 1st and Ten doesn't practice that patent, but we're
asserting that the way PVI implements their system does
practice it" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 10/18 issue).
