Sony joins Fujitsu Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Casio Computer Co. Ltd. as a systems-level licensee of a portfolio that Patriot says applies to all modern processors and all electronics equipment that includes a modern processor. Terms of Sony's license were not disclosed.

"This is a pivotal time for the MMP licensing program," said David Pohl, chairman and chief executive officer of Patriot Scientific (San Diego, Calif.), in a statement.

"Adding Sony to our ever-growing number of MMP licensees reinforces the strength of our jointly owned patent portfolio as well as our business and licensing strategy. The MMP Portfolio Licensing Program rewards first movers in their industry sectors with substantial discounts. Sony was successful in achieving this distinct honor," he added.

Patriot started to gain traction for its patent claims once it had signed Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp. in 2005. It was revealed in February 2006 that Patriot had received $24 million from its first three licensees: AMD, Intel and Hewlett-Packard.

The MMP portfolio is owned jointly by Patriot and the TPL Group (Cupertino, Calif.) and is marketed by Alliacense, a subsidiary of TPL. Patriot did not say how much TPL had received as its share of the licensing arrangements. AMD was the first company to license the MMP portfolio in February 2005. Terms were undisclosed, and, at the time, AMD said it had taken an undisclosed stake in Patriot Scientific. Intel licensed the MMP portfolio in July 2005 and HP signed up in January 2006. Patriot Scientific revealed subsequently that semiconductor makers like Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are not required to pay royalties on MMP licenses.

Patriot and its partner TPL appear to be targeting equipment makers as a source of royalties and have claimed that products ranging from televisions, digital cameras and portable music players to servers, medical equipment and automotive electronics systems are all designed with multiple semiconductor devices that use MMP portfolio technologies.

Patriot and TPL came together in June 2005 to settle a longstanding patent dispute so they could jointly pursue licensing revenue from third parties. The TPL Group has been granted full responsibility and authority for the commercialization and licensing of a unified portfolio of 10 patents.

Prior to the Patriot-TPL agreement, Patriot had been prosecuting litigation against major Japanese systems companies for alleged patent infringement—including Sony—without success.

The MMP portfolio is named after inventor Charles H. Moore, chief technology officer of TPL Group, who is known for inventing the Forth software programming language and for his work in the 1980s on stack-based microprocessors.