Sony's latest lawsuit.

Sony Corp., maker of the world's best- selling PlayStation game console, and Toshiba Corp. are being sued by the University of Wisconsin over microprocessors in the device it claims infringe a patent issued to two of its professors.

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the licensing agent for the school, sued Monday in U.S. court in Madison, Wisconsin, over the use of the computer chips in the central processing unit, or "emotion engine,'' of the PlayStation 2 game console. The foundation seeks cash compensation or a court order stopping Sony from using the chips.

Operating profit at Sony's games division fell 91 percent during the second quarter ended Sept. 30, the company reported this week. Competition from Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox console has meant Sony's game division contributed 6.6 percent to group operating profit in the quarter, down from 49 percent a year ago.

"We are aware of the lawsuit,'' Kenichi Fukunaga, a spokesman at Sony game unit Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said, declining to comment further.

Sony and Toshiba, both of which are based in Tokyo, jointly developed the PlayStation 2's emotion engine.

The university says John D. Wiley, who is the chancellor of the university, and John H. Perepezko, invented a manufacturing technology used to make the chips while the two worked as engineering professors at the school. The foundation is an independent organization that licenses patents issued to university employees, said foundation spokesman Andrew Cohn


--Bloomberg.com