Danny Puff

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Research In Motion unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets on Tuesday, stepping up its efforts to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone and Android devices powered by Google's software.

The lower-cost gadget, called the Q5, is the company's third smartphone to run the new BlackBerry 10 system. It will have a physical keyboard, something that sets RIM's devices apart from Apple's iPhone and most Android phones.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said the "slim, sleek" device will be available in red, black, white and pink. He announced the phone to a packed ballroom to open RIM's annual three-day conference in Orlando, Florida.

The device will be available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia (including the Asia Pacific region), and Latin America beginning in July. The Q5 isn't expected to be released in North America for now. The company did not disclose prices for the new phone.

RIM's higher-tier Q10 has been released in most markets, but delays have meant that U.S. carriers aren't likely to have it until June. The U.S. delays complicate RIM's effort to hang on to customers tempted by Apple's iPhone and a range of Android smartphones. Even as the BlackBerry has fallen behind rivals in recent years, many users have remained loyal because they prefer a physical keyboard over the touch screen found on other devices.

The Q5 differs only slightly from the Q10. Both have 2GB of RAM, though the Q5 has only 8GB of flash memory compared to 16 for the Q10. Both have 2 megapixel front-facing cameras, but the Q5's rear-facing camera is only 5 megapixels, compared to the Q10 which has 8 megapixels and also records high-definition video.

Also, the Q5 has a 3.1-inch LCD display, while the Q10 is 3.1 inches and LED.

RIM unveiled new BlackBerrys this year after delays allowed Apple and others to continue their global advance.

RIM's iconic BlackBerry device, introduced in 1999, was the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and consumers for nearly a decade. But rivals came out with a new generation of phones that could do more than just email and messaging, starting with the iPhone in 2007 and followed by devices running Google's Android system. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.

According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012.

Though RIM continues to do well in many overseas markets, the company faced numerous delays modernizing its operating system in an effort to compete with the iPhone and smartphones running Google's Android operating system.

Heins, who became RIM's CEO in January 2012, said the company has made a lot of progress in a short period of time.

He restated BlackBerry's committed to "mobile first" and took a subtle jab at industry predictions that he might not make it to this year's conference as CEO because of the competitive mobile landscape.

"I'm happy to say they were wrong," Heins said. "We are not only still here. We are firing on all cylinders as a company."

RIM's stock fell 63 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $15.25 in afternoon trading Tuesday.

RIM also said it will offer its once-popular BlackBerry Messenger service on iPhones and devices running Google's Android software.

Heins said iPhone and Android versions of the BlackBerry Messenger app will be available for free, subject to approval by Google Play and the Apple App Store.

"It's time to bring BBM to a greater audience," Heins said. "I cannot wait for the day when all of our BlackBerry fans can send BBM invites to all their friends on other platforms. They have asked us for this for years."

The BBM service was once a reason for BlackBerry users not to defect to other smartphones. Now, there are many rival messaging services. Still, there are more than 60 million BBM users worldwide.

BBM works like text messaging but doesn't incur extra fees.

Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, said offering BBM on rival platforms is a good move because closed ecosystems don't work anymore. He said the company was forced to do it but said it might be too late.

"BBM is a communication network and it's only as powerful as people who are on it," Gillis said.

Heins said RIM is "definitely in the race" and that he is excited about the company's outlook, predicting the most successful year for BlackBerry.

"What I can say is that 12 months ago I was told we would be out of business in two quarters, and that we could burn through our cash within two quarters. It didn't happen. We are confident in the future of BlackBerry 10."

Asked about a move away from tablet technology, Heins said that the future is in mobile and that BlackBerry's new initiatives are to target a consumer it thinks will rely on one mobile device for all communications within seven years.

RIM's tablet, the Playbook, has not sold well.

"You will always have people that are in a very limited view (asking questions) like 'when are you going to take on Apple?'" Heins said. "That's not the way I'm thinking about this."

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Gillies reported from Toronto.

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/khightower

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By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Nintendo Co, one of the world's largest makers of video game players, won a U.S. appeals court decision in a patent case that will allow it to keep importing its popular Wii system into the United States.

Monday's decision by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. affirmed a January 2012 ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission, which handles many technology patent disputes.

The decision against Motiva LLC, which sued Nintendo in 2008, could make it harder for U.S. companies to halt imports of products that allegedly infringe patents on grounds they want to establish a "domestic industry" for similar products.

In January, in a patent dispute between InterDigital inc and Nokia Oyj over wireless phones, the Federal Circuit said companies could seek such relief when they sought to license products incorporating their patents, even if such products were not being made.

Motiva, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, had claimed that Wii infringed two patents for a system to track a game user's position and body movement.

A three-judge Federal Circuit panel agreed with the ITC that the main impetus behind Motiva's litigation against Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo was to win damages or a settlement, not to license or make products incorporating Motiva's patents.

This panel said Motiva's litigation did not amount to the "significant" or "substantial" investment toward commercializing patented technology that was required under a patent protection law, known as the Tariff Act, that sets limits on imports.

"Motiva's litigation was targeted at financial gains, not at encouraging adoption of Motiva's patented technology," Circuit Judge Sharon Prost wrote. "There is simply no reasonable likelihood that, after successful litigation against Nintendo, Motiva's patented technology would have been licensed by partners who would have incorporated it."

The ITC had also concluded that Nintendo did not infringe the Motiva patents.

Christopher Banys, a lawyer for Motiva, called Monday's decision "unfortunate" but said the case will continue.

"We are confident that Motiva will be vindicated when its case is tried in district court," he said.

Richard Medway, deputy general counsel of Nintendo of America, in a statement said the company is pleased with the Federal Circuit decision.

Wii's major competitors include Sony Corp's PlayStation and Microsoft Corp's Xbox.

The case is Motiva LLC v. International Trade Commission, U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-1252.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Andrew Hay and Nick Zieminski)

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NEW YORK (AP) Univision Communications said Tuesday that it is pairing with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez on the English-language El Rey television network that is geared to young viewers and scheduled to debut this December.

Rodriguez is a filmmaker whose projects include "From Dusk Till Dawn." The first scripted series for El Rey will be an expansion of that movie, with the extra time allowing him to expand the story and explore richer Aztec mythology, he said.

The company that runs Univision, the most-popular Spanish-language network in the country, said Tuesday it has invested in El Rey. Terms were not disclosed. It is set to begin in December with a national distribution agreement with Comcast, the nation's largest cable company.

The network is expected to have a mix of reality, scripted, music and sports programming, along with movies.

"El Rey Network will serve as a launching pad to satisfy the tastes of young adults looking for exciting, cinematic, action-packed content," Rodriguez said.

Univision has expanded over the past two years, creating several new networks. One partnership with ABC is called Fusion, an English-language news network geared toward a Latino audience.

The Univision network said it will premiere two new telenovelas during the next season. "La Tempestad" will star William Levy and Ximena Navarrete, a former Miss Universe. "Mentir para Vivir" will star David Zepeda and Mayrin Vilanueva.

Randy Falco, president and CEO of Univision Communications Inc., told advertisers Tuesday that the company is at the intersection of two big growth opportunities: the Latino market and digital.

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Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie announced on Tuesday that she had a preventive mastectomy after learning she had a gene that significantly raised her risk of breast cancer. Here's a crash course in the procedure Jolie had and why.

Q: What kind of surgery did Jolie have?

A: Jolie had a preventive double mastectomy, meaning she chose to have both her breasts removed even though she had not been diagnosed with cancer.

Q: Why did she have the mastectomies?

A: Jolie says that she has a "faulty" version of the BRCA1 gene that means she had an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer. By having both breasts removed preventively, she said her breast cancer risk drops to below 5 percent.

Q: What did the procedure involve?

A: In double mastectomies, surgeons typically remove as much breast tissue as possible. In Jolie's case, because she was having a reconstruction done shortly afterward, the doctors preserved the skin covering her breasts, inserting "fillers" where the breast tissue would have been, to keep the skin elastic. According to Jolie, she had implants put in nine weeks later.

Q: How many women have this faulty gene?

A: Only a small percentage of women have this same faulty gene, or a similar mutated version of a related gene, BRCA2. These mutations are most commonly found in women of Eastern European Jewish descent; one study found 2.3 percent of women in that group had the mutations about five times higher than in the general population. Other ethnic groups, including the Norwegian, Dutch and Icelandic people, also have slightly higher rates of these mutations.

Q: How do these genes increase a woman's risk of breast cancer?

A: The average woman has a 12 percent risk of developing breast cancer sometime during her life. In comparison, women who have inherited a faulty version of a breast cancer gene are about five times more likely to get breast cancer. In the U.S., about 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are thought to be linked to harmful versions of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

Q: How can women find out if they have these gene mutations?

A: A genetic test using a blood test can usually detect these genes. In the U.S., there are no standard guidelines recommending women for BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic testing. The test can cost several thousand dollars but may often be covered by insurance companies if women have risk factors that justify it. Women may be at higher risk for having a harmful mutation if they have close family members diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer at an early age. Jolie says that her mother fought cancer for nearly a decade before dying at age 56.

Q: What other options might Jolie have had?

A: Doctors would likely have suggested earlier screening tests, including mammograms or MRIs, but those would only help them spot breast cancer earlier, not prevent it. They might also consider using breast cancer drugs preventively, though trials into their long-term use are still ongoing. "This is not a decision that people take lightly," said Dr. Emma Pennery, clinical director at the British charity, Breast Cancer Care. "You cannot decide to have a double mastectomy next week."

Q: How relevant is Jolie's decision to other women?

A: For most women, genetics will not play a big part in whether or not they get breast cancer. "The majority of women considering their breast cancer risk should focus on things like a healthy lifestyle, eating a balanced diet, keeping a healthy weight and not drinking too much alcohol," said Dr. Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research U.K. About one third of breast cancer cases in Britain are largely tied to modifiable lifestyle risk factors.

But for women with a similar genetic risk to Jolie, it's possible her decision to go public about her double mastectomies will prompt more procedures. "It's a very empowering message that women are not helpless when faced with a genetic cancer risk," Johnson said.

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NEW YORK (AP) Beyonce is canceling her Tuesday concert in Belgium because of dehydration and exhaustion.

In an email to The Associated Press, the singer's publicist says Beyonce has been advised by her doctors to rest. She was scheduled to perform at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp. The show will be rescheduled and tickets can be used at that show.

Her next tour date is Wednesday at the same arena. The statement says "she is awaiting word from her doctors before making a decision."

Beyonce, 31, launched her "Mrs. Carter World Tour" last month in Belgrade, Serbia. It wraps Aug. 5 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) A film that weaves together stories of the anguish and desperation of American and Filipino soldiers during the notorious Bataan Death March could have been shot on location in a large-scale production.

Filipino director Borinaga Alix Jr. instead chose to film "Death March" in black-and-white and almost entirely inside a studio using hand-painted backdrops, with close-ups of actors' painted faces portraying their struggles with nightmares and hallucinations in one of the bloodiest episodes of World War II.

"Death March" is competing against 17 other movies at the Cannes Film Festival that opens Wednesday, including Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring," French director Claire Denis' "Les Salauds" and fellow Filipino director Lav Diaz's "Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan." The entries were made in the category for art house and experimental films.

Some 70,000 starving, sick, and exhausted American and Filipino prisoners of the Japanese Imperial Army marched under a brutal sun for five days in April 1942, covering 105 kilometers (65 miles) from the Bataan peninsula to a prison camp in Tarlac province. Survivors told stories of atrocities, with many of the prisoners stabbed or decapitated by their Japanese captors if they so much as stopped to drink water or collapsed to the ground. Thousands died from illness or exhaustion.

After reading the script by Rody Vera, Alix said he was struck by the war's emotional and psychological effect on soldiers.

"It felt like they were sleep walking their nightmares," Alix said in an interview. He said he wanted to highlight how the event shaped the soldiers' psyche.

Instead of the initial plan to go on location, he consulted the production designer and decided "to shoot in a controlled environment where all the elements were synthetic, except the actors, to heighten the surreal feeling of the film."

The multi-character movie stars Filipino actors Sid Lucero as a Filipino soldier who fights to stay sane after his friend is shot in front of him, and Filipino-American actor Sam Milby as an American soldier taking care of his sick captain but also thinking of ways to escape from the Japanese.

Other Filipino actors whose stories converge in the film are Zanjoe Marudo, Jason Abalos, Carlo Aquino and Felix Roco.

Japanese actor and producer Jackie Woo, who has starred in two previous films directed by Alix, also plays several roles.

"At first I was surprised because he was Japanese," Alix said of Woo. "I know it is a very delicate subject matter especially for them, because the world has stereotypes of how the Japanese were during that time."

But he said he was happy that Woo loved the script, which last year won first prize for screenplay at the Palanca Memorial Awards, the Philippine literary version of the Pulitzer Prize.

"He said he is not afraid to produce it because at the end, all these three countries are victims of the war," Alix added.

Shooting lasted 18 days over about four months. At least 15 local artists had to hand-paint the backdrops for two months before shooting began. The movie went over the budget at around 10 million pesos ($244,000) because of the decision to shoot in a studio.

Alix said that while shooting indoors was confining and more expensive, it was worth it.

"The audience might feel a certain discomfort because it's not as real as it is, but at a certain point you also feel like you are in a journey with the characters" he said.

The 34-year-old director, named in 2010 by The Hollywood Reporter as among Asia's best and brightest entertainment personalities below 35, said he was thrilled that his movie will be competing in Cannes.

"For me it's just an honor to be in the same lineup of these directors because I love their work," said Alix, whose co-directed movie "Manila" also had a special screening in Cannes in 2009.

He said being in the festival gives small films like his the buzz and exposure that can boost sales.

Two French distributors have signed up to market the movie in France and elsewhere, he said.

"What is important now for us is to show that there is a movement that is coming from the Philippines, because in the past six years there have been a lot of Filipino films that have been screened in festivals and we get a lot of reviews," he said.

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Follow Teresa Cerojano on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtmanila

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By Clare Jim

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd , the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer, faces growing competition from cross-town rival Pegatron Corp , a company that is just a quarter of its size by revenue.

Hon Hai, better known by its trading name Foxconn, draws an estimated 60 to 70 percent of its revenue from assembling gadgets and other work for Apple Inc . But it has been struggling to grow in a smartphone market increasingly dominated by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd .

Fellow Taiwanese manufacturer Pegatron wants to grab more orders to assemble the fast-selling iPhone and iPad from the California-based tech giant. Analysts say Pegatron offers more competitive pricing - at the expense of lower margins - and appears to be succeeding in pulling in more orders from Apple.

Pegatron's announcement last week that it would increase its number of workers in China by up to 40 percent in the second half of the year fuelled market speculation that it would be the sole assembler for a widely expected cheaper iPhone.

"Pegatron posts a long-term risk to Hon Hai because as it catches up on margins by supplying more components, it can provide more aggressive pricing," Daiwa Capital analyst Birdy Lu said. "Hon Hai's margin uptrend is not a guarantee."

Hon Hai is expected to post a net profit of T$18.76 billion ($638.24 million) in the first quarter, according to 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Results are due to be released early this week.

This would be 26 percent higher than a net profit of T$14.92 billion in the same period a year earlier, before the company adopted a new accounting standard, but only around half of the record T$36.97 billion in the previous quarter.

The company, which has come under fire for labor conditions in its factories supplying Apple, has raised wages and improved amenities. But rising labor costs erode margins, and it has been moving manufacturing to China's cheaper inland provinces.

MARGINS NARROW

Apple, along with its suppliers, relies heavily on new product launches to drive revenue growth. Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook told analysts last month that "some really great stuff" would come in late 2013 and 2014, suggesting it would be a few more months before the company has any new products.

Samsung, by contrast, recently launched its newest Galaxy S4 smartphone to strong demand. Samsung relies on its own in-house supplies for the majority of components in its smartphones.

Apple posted its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade in the March quarter, and forecast revenue of $33.5 billion to $35.5 billion this quarter, compared with $43.6 billion in the previous quarter.

Despite rising profit, Hon Hai recorded a revenue slide of 19.2 percent in the January-March period.

Pegatron's revenue grew 29 percent in the same period from a year ago, while its net profit surged 81 percent to T$2.31 billion ($78.59 million).

Pegatron currently makes older models for Apple, including the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, It also manufactures the iPad mini.

"Hon Hai would see a flat revenue this year at best... while Pegatron has great growth potentials because it is going from nothing to something," said HSBC analyst Jenny Lai. "But Hon Hai's margins would improve, benefitting from getting more component orders.

Foxconn Technology Group, Hon Hai's holding company, has been trying to turn itself into a high-margin purveyor of sophisticated components to escape from the ever decreasing margins in its traditional business.

"I think it'd be a misconception to label Foxconn as just an assembly line manufacturer," group spokesman Louis Woo told Reuters late last year in an interview. "From glass to cable connectors, we're playing a critical part in components."

In the fourth quarter, Hon Hai's operating margin climbed 3 basis points to 3.7 percent, compared with the previous three months, while Pegatron's operating margin improved by 2 basis points to 0.3 percent. In the March quarter, Pegatron's operating margin increased by 5 basis points to 0.8 percent.

"Pegatron's margins are still a lot lower than Hon Hai's. This is because Pegatron's offering very competitive pricing and that's how it wins orders," said Lai.

($1 = 29.3935 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Emily Kaiser)

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NEW YORK (AP) NBC is giving the public more than just a new slate of programming. There are prizes to be had, too.

The network said Sunday that it's holding a Twitter-based sweepstakes linked to its fall schedule presentation to advertisers a social-media twist on the annual TV rite occurring this week.

One of the prizes is a trip to Los Angeles to attend a final taping of Jay Leno's "Tonight Show." The other is a New York visit to see one of the first tapings of the relocated "Tonight" with new host Jimmy Fallon.

The contest opens Monday, when the network announces its lineup, and it runs through June 13. Fans can enter by following NBC's Twitter accounts of its upcoming schedule, which will include a new Sean Hayes sitcom.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward.

Halfway around the globe, similar contraptions atop the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere around Paris keep a pulse on emissions from smokestacks and automobile tailpipes. And there is talk of outfitting Sao Paulo, Brazil, with sensors that sniff the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

It's part of a budding effort to track the carbon footprints of megacities, urban hubs with over 10 million people that are increasingly responsible for human-caused global warming.

For years, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse pollutants have been closely monitored around the planet by stations on the ground and in space. Last week, worldwide levels of carbon dioxide reached 400 parts per million at a Hawaii station that sets the global benchmark a concentration not seen in millions of years.

Now, some scientists are eyeing large cities with LA and Paris as guinea pigs and aiming to observe emissions in the atmosphere as a first step toward independently verifying whether local and often lofty climate goals are being met.

For the past year, a high-tech sensor poking out from a converted shipping container has stared at the Los Angeles basin from its mile-high perch on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains that's home to a famous observatory and communication towers.

Like a satellite gazing down on Earth, it scans more than two dozen points from the inland desert to the coast. Every few minutes, it rumbles to life as it automatically sweeps the horizon, measuring sunlight bouncing off the surface for the unique fingerprint of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

In a storage room next door, commercially available instruments that typically monitor air quality double as climate sniffers. And in nearby Pasadena, a refurbished vintage solar telescope on the roof of a laboratory on the California Institute of Technology campus captures sunlight and sends it down a shaft 60 feet below where a prism-like instrument separates out carbon dioxide molecules.

On a recent April afternoon atop Mount Wilson, a brown haze hung over the city, the accumulation of dust and smoke particles in the atmosphere.

"There are some days where we can see 150 miles way out to the Channel Islands and there are some days where we have trouble even seeing what's down here in the foreground," said Stanley Sander, a senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

What Sander and others are after are the mostly invisible greenhouse gases spewing from factories and freeways below.

There are plans to expand the network. This summer, technicians will install commercial gas analyzers at a dozen more rooftops around the greater LA region. Scientists also plan to drive around the city in a Prius outfitted with a portable emission-measuring device and fly a research aircraft to pinpoint methane hotspots from the sky (A well-known natural source is the La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of LA where underground bacteria burp bubbles of methane gas to the surface.)

Six years ago, elected officials vowed to reduce emissions to 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 by shifting to renewable energy and weaning the city's dependence on out-of-state coal-fired plants, greening the twin port complex and airports and retrofitting city buildings.

It's impractical to blanket the city with instruments so scientists rely on a handful of sensors and use computer models to work backward to determine the sources of the emissions and whether they're increasing. They won't be able to zero in on an offending street or a landfill, but they hope to be able to tell whether switching buses from diesel to alternative fuel has made a dent.

Project manager Riley Duren of JPL said it'll take several years of monitoring to know whether LA is on track to reach its goal.

Scientists not involved with the project say it makes sense to dissect emissions on a city level to confirm whether certain strategies to curb greenhouse gases are working. But they're divided about the focus.

Allen Robinson, an air quality expert at Carnegie Mellon University, said he prefers more attention paid to measuring a city's methane emissions since scientists know less about them than carbon dioxide release.

Nearly 58 percent of California's carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 came from gasoline-powered vehicles, according to the U.S. Energy Department's latest figures.

In much of the country, coal usually as fuel for electric power is a major source of carbon dioxide pollution. But in California, it's responsible for a tad more than 1 percent of the state's carbon dioxide emissions. Natural gas, considered a cleaner fuel, spews one third of the state's carbon dioxide.

Overall, California in 2010 released about 408 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air. The state's carbon dioxide pollution is greater than all but 20 countries and is just ahead of Spain's emissions. In 2010, California put nearly 11 tons of carbon dioxide into the air for every person, which is lower than the national average of 20 tons per person.

Gregg Marland, an Appalachian State University professor who has tracked worldwide emissions for the Energy Department, said there's value in learning about a city's emissions and testing techniques.

"I don't think we need to try this in many places, but we have to try some to see what works and what we can do," he said.

Launching the monitoring project came with the usual growing pains. In Paris, a carbon sniffer originally tucked away in the Eiffel Tower's observation deck had to be moved to a higher floor that's off-limits to the public after tourists' exhaling interfered with the data.

So far, $3 million have been spent on the U.S. effort with funding from federal, state and private groups. The French, backed by different sponsors, have spent roughly the same.

Scientists hope to strengthen their ground measurements with upcoming launches of Earth satellites designed to track carbon dioxide from orbit. The field experiment does not yet extend to China, by far the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluter. But it's a start, experts say.

With the focus on megacities, others have worked to decipher the carbon footprint of smaller places like Indianapolis, Boston and Oakland, where University of California, Berkeley researchers have taken a different tack and blanketed school rooftops with relatively inexpensive sensors.

"We are at a very early stage of knowing the best strategy, and need to learn the pros and cons of different approaches," said Inez Fung, a professor of atmospheric science at Berkeley who has no role in the various projects.

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Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

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By Malathi Nayak

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In the midst of the bitter national debate on gun violence, gun manufacturers and videogame makers are delicately navigating one of the more peculiar relationships in American business.

Violent "first-person shooter" games such as "Call of Duty" are the bread and butter of leading video game publishers, and authenticity all but requires that they feature brand-name weapons.

Electronic Arts licensed weapons from companies like McMillan Group International as part of a marketing collaboration for "Medal of Honor: Warfighter." Activision Blizzard gives "special thanks" to Colt, Barrett and Remington in the credits for its "Call of Duty" titles.

Rifles by Bushmaster, which made the gun used in the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting last December, have appeared in the hugely popular "Call of Duty."

Yet, in the wake of the Newtown shooting, the biggest advocate for gun ownership, the National Rifle Association, took aim at videogames to explain gun violence. One week after 20 schoolchildren and six adults were killed in the shooting, NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre called the videogame industry "a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people."

Now at least one game maker, the second largest by revenue in the United States, is publicly distancing itself from the gun industry, even as it finds ways to keep the branded guns in the games. Electronic Arts says it is severing its licensing ties to gun manufacturers - and simultaneously asserting that it has the right, and the intention, to continue to feature branded guns without a license.

For the gunmakers, having their products in games is "free marketing, just like having Coca-Cola" in a movie, said Roxanne Christ, a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP in Los Angeles, who works with video game companies on licensing, but has not personally done a gun deal.

Yet it is also a virtual double-edged sword. "It gives publicity to the particular brand of gun being used in the video game," said Brad J. Bushman, a professor at Ohio State University who has studied video game violence. "On the other hand, it's linking that gun with violent and aggressive behavior."

Gun makers, including the Freedom Group that owns brands like Remington and Bushmaster, and the NRA, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Reuters.

'ENHANCED AUTHENTICITY'

First-person shooter games let players blast their way through battlefields while looking down the barrel of a virtual gun, taking aim with the flick of a controller.

Some of those guns - like the Colt M1911 pistol in "Call of Duty" - turn sideways to face the screen during reloading, revealing the brand name. Games also offer lists of branded weapons to choose from.

Licensed images of weapons in "Medal of Honor: Warfighter" - a game that simulates military missions like fighting pirates in Somalia - offer what EA spokesman Jeff Brown calls "enhanced authenticity."

Back in the late 90's, video game makers initially approached gun companies for licenses to inoculate themselves from potential lawsuits, video game industry lawyers say. Over the years, legal clearances were granted for little or no money by gunmakers, these lawyers said.

Yet overt signs of cooperation between the video game and gun industries had begun to draw criticism even before the December school shooting in Connecticut.

In August, game fans and some video game news outlets vehemently objected to EA putting links to weapons companies like the McMillan Group and gun magazine maker Magpul, where gamers could check out real versions of weapons featured in the game, on its "Medal of Honor: Warfighter" game website.

"What kind of message is a video game publisher like EA sending when it encourages its players to buy weapons?" asked Laura Parker, the associate editor of gaming site GameSpot Australia in a post in August.

EA immediately removed the links and dropped the marketing tie-up, which it said was part of a charity project to raise money for military veterans. The company said it received no money from its gun company partners.

"We won't do that again," said Brown. "The action games we will release this year will not include licensed images of weapons."

EA said politics and NRA comments critical of game makers had nothing to do with its decision. "The response from our audience was pretty clear: they feel the comments from the NRA were a simple attempt to change the subject," Brown said.

EA also says video game makers can have branded guns in their games without getting licenses, meaning the industry could drop the gun companies and keep their guns.

Activision, the industry leader, declined to comment on whether it licenses gun designs from gun manufacturers or if it would stop doing so. Branded guns have consistently been featured in its blockbuster shooter games like the decade-old "Call of Duty."

"We're telling a story and we have a point of view," EA's President of Labels Frank Gibeau, who leads product development of EA's biggest franchises, said in an interview. "A book doesn't pay for saying the word 'Colt,' for example."

Put another way, EA is asserting a constitutional free speech right to use trademarks without permission in its ever-more-realistic games.

Legal experts say there isn't a single case so far where gun companies have sued video game companies for using branded guns without a license.

But EA's legal theory is now being tested in court. Aircraft maker Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc, has argued that Electronic Arts' depiction of its helicopters in "Battlefield" was beyond fair use and amounted to a trademark infringement. EA preemptively went to court, suing Bell Helicopter to settle the issue.

The U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, has set a jury trial for the case in June.

(Reporting By Malathi Nayak, Editing by Peter Henderson, Jonathan Weber, Mary Milliken and Tim Dobbyn)

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