By Deborah Finestone
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of Immersion Corp. (IMMR) jumped 15% Tuesday following a favorable court ruling in a patent infringement dispute with Sony Corp. (SNE)
Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California imposed a licensing fee for Sony, the maker of PlayStation, to pay Immersion, a small, San Jose, Calif., firm that develops and licenses touch-related technologies used to simulate the sense of touch by making the game controller vibrate.
The judge's order essentially affirmed an $82 million federal jury award in September.
Neither Immersion or Sony officials were immediately available to comment on the ruling.
The jury agreed that Sony's popular videogame consoles, as well as its DualShock controllers and 47 games, infringed on two Immersion patents. The panel, however, did not find the violations to be willful - a factor that could have tripled damages.
The verdict was far less than the $299 million Immersion sought in the suit first filed in 2002 against Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Sony Computer Entertainment America. Immersion's revenues in 2003 totaled $20.2 million.
The $82 million represents 1.37% of Sony's U.S. sales of PlayStation consoles, controllers and pertinent games until June 30, 2004, and Sony must continue paying the fee for sales thereafter as long as the license remains in effect. Sony must also pay interest on the fee from July 1 until the final judgment is entered, expected some time in mid-February, according to a spokesperson for Immersion.
Judge Wilken denied Immersion's request for an injunction of sales and said both parties must pay their own attorney's fees.
Shares of Immersion recently traded at $7.21, up 95 cents, or 15.2%, on volume of 848,000 shares -- six times average daily volume.
Sony shares rose 0.6% to $38.98.
