MLBAM has been hit with its second major lawsuit in little more than a week as North Carolina-based video enhancement company SportsMEDIA Technology has sued baseball’s digital arm alleging patent infringement, theft of trade secrets and breach of contract regarding pitch tracking technology. A 92-page complaint, filed late last week in U.S. District Court in N.Y., claims MLBAM ignored a contract with SMT-owned Sportvision running through ’19, built its own pitch tracking system with other third-party technologies and integrated it into Statcast, in turn violating SMT’s patent and contractual rights. “Over its 30-year history, SMT has never encountered an executive leader of a major U.S. sports league behaving as if the rules of civility, professional conduct, U.S. contract law and U.S. patent law do not apply to their actions and behavior,” the complaint reads in part. SMT, which acquired Sportvision in ’16 for more than $25M, is seeking unspecified damages at trial. MLBAM declined to comment. The SMT lawsuit follows an unrelated one from former MLBAM exec Dinn Mann regarding equity in the company’s non-baseball business.
