Sportsmax has finally confirmed that the intellectual property rights case filed against the RJR Communication Group last September was settled out of court.

"We have resolved that issue and yes, we agreed to something out of court," said Oliver McIntosh, president and CEO of Sportsmax in response to queries by the Observer yesterday.

"Obviously, as you can imagine, I'm confined by that agreement to not divulge the details, but let's just say that we have always had a good relationship with TVJ and we will continue to have a good relationship with TVJ," he added, noting that the settlement was reached shortly after Sportmax's attorney, Kwame Gordon of Frater, Ennis and Gordon, filed documents with the Supreme Court in Kingston on September 19, 2007.

Highly placed Observer sources indicated the settlement was valued at just under two million dollars. Asked to confirm that figure, McIntosh was cautious in his response.

"Again, the confidentiallity within that agreement does not allow me to talk about the details of it, so the settlement was a settlement that not everybody wins, but not everybody loses and what we agreed to was to better monitor content on each others' channels to make sure that there is no infringement of intellectual property and I think that value was received," he explained.

"These matters come up sometimes and unfortunately, you have to take a step to protect your intellectual property, and in this case, Sportsmax and IMC did that.

"... At the end of the day, Sportsmax and TVJ were able to come to a resolution, that we hope this would not happen again," McIntosh stated.

The above-mentioned breaches relate to the alleged unauthorised broadcast of an international friendly match between England and Brazil in June (2007), and the COPA America (South American Football Championships) in June and July on TVJ-SN.