• LG vs Sony: European Customs Seize PS3 Shipments

    LG vs Sony: European Customs Seize PS3 Shipments

    Nachiket Mhatre, Mar 01, 2011 1257 hrs IST

    Tens of thousands of PlayStation 3 consoles held in Dutch warehouses

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Sony and LG patent infringement battle has been raging for a while now with either party launching suits and countersuits on the issue. LG, however, has managed to draw first blood by winning an injunction that will have all new PlayStation 3s imported into Europe confiscated by customs for at least ten days. This is a massive blow to Sony in Europe, with tens of thousands of PS3s being held in Dutch warehouses. LG's bone of contention is that Sony has infringed on its Blu-ray technology that is incorporated in the PS3. Sony had countersued and sought to block shipments of LG smartphones to the US to no avail.

To understand the magnitude of the situation, Sony imports about 100,000 PS3 consoles to Europe every week, so the injunction will hit the Japanese electronics giant quite hard. It gets worse because LG can apply to the same patents office and get the ban extended further. LG can also legally seek for the consoles to be destroyed, although the courts are unlike to grant such permission. With over 3 million PS3s already sold in the UK, Sony could face losing hundreds of millions of dollars if it were to pay a fine to LG for the patent infringement.

Sony is now trying hard to get the ban lifted and file an appeal against the order. That's something Sony better hope happens, because as The Guardian notes, the European retailers usually have only a few weeks of buffer till their stock runs dry.




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sony ps3 playstation playstation 3 lg smartphones console games gaming suit lawsuit case patent infringement Europe court injunction ban stock



Discussion Board
(1) Comments
Steve
,Merritt Island, on Mar 07, 2011 07:27 AM
Support LG until SONY Backs down from suing GeoHot and others. It's our way of fighting back and it could put SONY in the hole. No better way to hurt them than in the pocket.
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