Bloomberg News
Saturday, August 4, 2007

Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial and other television-set makers will be able to challenge the patents of a Texas company that it says cover the V-chip, which is used to block adult programming, an appeals court said yesterday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit revived a lawsuit that the companies filed against Guardian Media Technologies. The companies want a court to rule the patents either invalid or not infringed upon.

Guardian claimed that Sony owed royalties of more than $31 million as of July 2005 and Matsushita owed almost $26 million. Matsushita's brands include JVC and Panasonic

Guardian is willing to settle the claims for $9 million from Sony and $8.5 million from Matsushita. Mitsubishi and Thomson were also told they owed royalties. All said they owed Guardian nothing.

"At the time that Sony filed its complaint, an actual controversy had arisen between Sony and Guardian" that needed to be resolved by a court, the appeals court said, overturning a lower court decision to dismiss the case. The Federal Circuit made the same findings for Matsushita and Mitsubishi.

The Federal Circuit sent the case back to the federal court in San Diego for further review.

Richard L. Stanley, Guardian's lawyer, said he was reviewing the decision and declined to comment.