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North Hollywood-based Shotmaker Dollies Inc. plans to take on the major players in motion-picture camera platforms as a result of winning a key court ruling recently.

Shotmaker has announced it will start selling, leasing and renting its ``Blue'' line of Falcon, Hawk and Eagle articulated dollies in mid-August, which will pit it against leaders J.L. Fisher Inc. and Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment, both of which also are based in North Hollywood.

Price tags on the Shotmaker line, produced in Italy by Cinemeccanica, range from $69,000 to $89,000. J. Fisher and Chapman rent and lease their dollies, rather than sell them.

``We're a distant third in the business now, but we think we'll be able to pole vault past the leaders in a couple of years,'' Roy Atlas, president and chief operating officer of Shotmaker, said Friday. He said interest within the industry is intense partly because Shotmaker will sell the dollies, unlike its rivals.

In what Atlas termed a ``landmark'' decision, a New Jersey state court ruled earlier this month that Shotmaker's dollies were not in violation of a 1991 permanent injunction protecting Chapman's Pee Wee dollies. That order came after Cinemeccanica's devices were judged to be too similar.

Chapman filed suit last year when Shotmaker tried to sell the redesigned Cinemeccanica dollies. But Judge John Bissell found ``no substantial similarity between the dollies'' after analyzing over 122 of their elements.

Shotmaker sells and leases a line of German-built Panther dollies that use electronic lifts. Atlas said the Blue platforms operate on hydraulic lifts, making them more durable with greater maneuverability.

Dennis Knopf, general manager of J.L. Fisher, was unimpressed by Shotmaker's announcement. ``We don't see Cinemeccanica as a serious competitor in the foreign markets where they're distributed,'' he said. ``The quality of our products speaks for itself. We're not No. 1 by accident.''

Shotmaker is part of publicly held Camera Platforms International, which was founded in 1985 by director/producer Hal Needham and bought out last fall by Atlas and a partner, who now own 78 percent. Needham, best known for ``Cannonball Run'' and ``Smokey and the Bandit,'' remains a consultant.

Camera Platforms has annual revenues of $6 million and Atlas predicts that could double as a result of the broadened product line. Its stock last traded at 15 cents a share Tuesday and has shifted between 10 cents and 37.5 cents this year.