A ruling by the civil court of justice in the Hague surrounding patents related to the playback of Blue-ray discs means that all new PS3s have to be confiscated as they arrive in Europe for at least the next ten days, according to the report.
The Guardian reports that Sony usually has two to three weeks’ worth of the consoles in stock across the continent, so the impact of the seizures may not be felt until next month.
Both companies have the right to dispute the ruling. LG could ask for the seizures to be extended while Sony could ask for the ban to be lifted.
If Sony is found to have infringed on LG’s patents, it could cost the company hundreds of millions in compensation.
We have reached out to Sony for comment, but the company already told The Guardian that they are looking into the matter. LG declined to comment.
European customs ordered to seize PlayStation shipments in legal dispute
Boo
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 10:26 AMThis is the problem with patents nowadays.
The rate technology is advancing, it’s possible that certain features will overlap already existing patents. What LG is doing is a classic example of sitting on your arse with a patent and waiting until another company who has a similar product get rich from it then pounce on them with a patent infringement so they can take all the profit without doing anything. Other companies have tried this with Nintendo and Microsoft but this is I think the first time the ‘other’ company won.
I think patent law needs to be reviewed because it’s incredibly anti-competitive and unfair.
Braaains
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:30 PMThe “other” company won in the controller rumble case. MS paid up and so did Sony (eventually, after trying the rumble-less SixAxis controller).
The Insufferable Señor Steengo
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 10:27 AMTsk tsk, how can Sony runs around suing every ‘hacker’ in sight all the while they’re flaunting the law!
moloko
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 11:34 AMLOL Sony, Karma’s a bitch. Sony was doing the patent crap to LG the end of last year with their Phones, so don’t play the poor little Sony getting picked on crap.
Braaains
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:40 PMIf you follow the news much, you’d probably notice that pretty much every phone company is suing or has sued pretty much every other phone company for infringing upon one patent or another at some point. Tech industries are absolutely rife with patent suits flying around the place – very few of them ever end up with much other than a quiet dropping or settling of the suit.
The only thing unusual about this case is that anything has happened at all.
Jason Hammond
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:57 PMHey $ony! you took my Other OS feature away don’t come crying foul, you had it coming!
PsychoSmiley
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 2:51 PMA feature which I can assure you never used, thus irrelevant.
DansDans
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 4:31 PMIt wont stop fools complaining about it though and joining the mindless masses who are using it to justify their jailbreak
Andrew
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 6:58 PMGet a clue you fanboy retard.
Alastair
Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 2:56 PMI have 7 other devices running a form of Linux in my household – that could have been 8 so now I’m justified in stealing all of the games that developers paid to make! Wait… =P
Matthew
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 12:46 AMand if they didnt take it away, this still would have happened…i dont see where your point is going…..
Justin
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:58 PM“to the playback of Blue-ray discs ”
Blu-Ray.
deathtoll
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 1:27 PMPatent sitting is nothing new. Companies do this all the time.
Have to agree with moloko, karma’s a bitch.
Goraxium
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 9:06 PMI believe the patent laws state that you can only hold a patent as long as you plan on developing the product. I’m not entirely sure how that’d go down with these giants, since they could say the concept was due to be implemented 10 years down the track, in spite of the fact they never made any plans to actually follow through…