St. Petersburg Times
ST. PETERSBURG, FL., Feb. 18 - A Pinellas County businessman who pioneered computer-assisted scouting syste ms for football coaches has won a $13.6-million judgment against two companies that cut him out of the business.
Sam Covault, 51, of Tarpon Springs, said his company, Athle-Tech Computer Systems Inc., had rights to the technology that Montage Group Ltd. and Digital Editing Services ignored as they developed and sold systems used by many college and pro sports teams.
A Pinellas County Circuit Court jury last week awarded the damages for breach of contract, interference with business and "unjust enrichment."
The computerized systems make it easy for coaches to slice up video of an opponent's previous games, producing customized video clips. The resulting montage might, for example, show all the defensive blitzes. Before video was developed, coaches cut apart pieces of 16mm film by hand, sorted them by taping pieces to a wall, then glued the selected pieces together. After videotape came along, coaches switched to it.
As a graduate student at Ohio State University, Covault wrote a doctoral dissertation on using the computer in football coaching. As a college coach, he developed a system that allowed a mainframe computer to control a deck of VCRs to make customized tapes. He established Athle-Tech in 1986 to sell those systems, but they had a major drawback: The tapes took days to produce.
Covault said he realized the future was digital technology and sought out Montage's expertise in digital video editing. They installed their first PC-based systems in 1994 and 1995 at West Virginia University and the University of Wisconsin.
But Covault said Montage failed to live up to its obligations under their partnership agreement. He said Montage's principals told him they were getting out of the sports business, then formed another company, Digital Editing, to develop and market the software. Athle-Tech never got the finished software, which Covault said he had spent all his capital developing.
"We were knocked out of the business," Covault said. He said Athle-Tech never recovered, although it hung on for several years, selling old-style VCR systems to schools that couldn't afford the new PC systems.
"We brought this case seeking damages because they never shared the proceeds from the sales they made, and they never delivered to us the completed software that was contractually promised," said Tampa lawyer Frank Jakes, who represented Athle-Tech.
Pinnacle Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., which bought Montage and Digital Editing in 2000, said it will take an $11.3- million charge to last quarter's results as a result of the judgment. It said it will seek reimbursement from the two companies' former owners for all or part of the damages and will consider an appeal.
"It takes a long time, but in the end, this (legal) system does work," Covault said. "This wasn't the easiest case to understand from a technical point of view, but in the end these local citizens (on the jury) really did a great job of analyzing a lot of technical stuff."
- Helen Huntley can be reached at huntley@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8230.
