March 27 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., Dell Inc., Sony Corp. and five other technology companies were added to a lawsuit over patents covering Bluetooth, threatening their use of a wireless- communication standard that's in millions of devices.

The nonprofit Washington Research Foundation sued Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia Oyj over Bluetooth in Seattle federal court in December. Apple, Dell and Sony were added as defendants March 15, along with Logitech International SA, Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Toshiba Corp. and Plantronics Inc., court papers show.

The suit threatens the ability of the computer and device makers to deliver wireless capabilities to customers. The companies are accused of infringing four patents covering technology that lets users exchange data among mobile phones, personal computers and other devices without using cables.

The Seattle-based foundation, which has generated more than $150 million for the University of Washington, is asking for money damages and a court order barring the sale of products that use the patented technology. More than 1 billion devices worldwide are equipped with Bluetooth technology, according to the Bellevue, Washington-based Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Apple, maker of the Macintosh computer, incorporated Bluetooth into the Mac operating-system software to let users link to devices with the wireless standard. Dell, the world's second-largest personal computer maker, built Bluetooth into its machines and offers Bluetooth wireless keyboards.

Targeted Technology

Bob Pearson, a spokesman for Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation. Cupertino, California-based Apple also doesn't comment on pending lawsuits, said spokeswoman Susan Lundgren. Ann Morfogen, a spokeswoman for Sony in the U.S., didn't immediately return a call.

Shares of Apple fell 39 cents to $95.46 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. They have climbed 13 percent this year. Dell's stock rose 13 cents to $23.75 and has fallen 5.3 percent this year.

Bluetooth was invented by an Ericsson AB engineer in the 1990s and developed by Ericsson, Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Nokia, according to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, composed of more than 6,000 companies. Sony Ericsson is a joint venture between Sweden's Ericsson AB and Japan's Sony.

CLR Chips

The foundation's suit is aimed at products with chips made by CSR Plc., which the group says is using its Bluetooth technology without permission. The foundation licensed its technology to another chipmaker, Broadcom Corp., and it isn't suing for infringement over products that use those wireless- communications chips.

CSR, based in Cambridge, England, entered the case in January and countersued the foundation, court papers show.

``The suit is without merit in relation to CSR's Bluetooth chips and CSR will defend its products rigorously,'' CSR said in a statement in January.

The case is Washington Research Foundations v. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. 06cv1813, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (Seattle).

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff St.Onge in Washington, at jstonge@bloomberg.net; Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 27, 2007 16:20 EDT