Portable in-flight entertainment (IFE) maker digEcor last week received the equivalent of a tongue lashing from a Utah district court.

The court dismissed with prejudice (i.e. permanently) all of digEcor's remaining claims against competitor - and former partner - e.Digital, and ordered that digEcor recover no damages or injunctive relief. But it also took some digEcor executives to task for their testimony.

In issuing its ruling, the court found:

...e.Digital's witnesses to be credible, while some witnesses offered by digEcor lacked credibility under the above criteria. Specifically, digEcor's president,
Brent Wood, offered self-serving testimony at trial that was often contradicted by his own past testimony or with his own private statements in the contemporaneous communications offered in evidence. At one point during the trial, Mr. Wood stated that his sworn testimony on a crucial issue (which did not align with digEcor's litigation position), given in the 30(b)(6) deposition of digEcor, was false. Further, while the court found digEcor vice president Chris Wood to be generally credible, documents introduced at trial demonstrate that he was less than candid with e.Digital about the purpose of the inspection performed by digEcor and the extent of the information digEcor learned.

The court says it incorporated these credibility determinations in reaching its findings.

I've written a news article about the ruling and posted it to the new IFE&C channel. But below you'll find the key quotes from e.Digital and digEcor. Note that they are both looking forward to the World Airline Entertainment Association conference and exhibition in Palm Springs next month. Guess what? So are we! I'm envisioning a peace circle and a little Cat Stevens. What say you?

Robert Putnam, e.Digital senior vice-president, says: "We are pleased with the court's rulings and look forward to next month's World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition, where we'll be meeting with current and prospective eVU portable IFE customers."

Brent Wood, CEO of digEcor, says: "Are we disappointed with the outcome? Sure. However, the suit was necessary to force e.Digital to perform on its last production contract with digEcor. The failure to prevail on some damages claims for late delivery doesn't change anything. It is almost moot. Who we are and what we do is no different today than yesterday. We continue to partner with airlines to find innovative solutions to IFE. We continue to develop programs that bring revenue to airlines enabling them to put high-quality entertainment and flexible devices in front of passengers.

"In fact, we invite everyone to come visit our booth at the WAEA show in a few weeks as we will be making several big announcements that will help propel digEcor and the IFE industry forward."