LG Loses Against Sony. PS3 Shipment Begin to Flow to Europe

Remember the earlier scare that Sony went through where all PS3 shipments were ordered to be halted into Europe, thanks to a Sony vs. LG patent war? Well after the initial judge ruled on LG’s favor, the over all ruling has now come in favor of Sony Electronics. The more then 300,00 PlayStation 3 units that are currently sitting at customs are set to start flowing to inventory channels. Considering how fast this was resolved, we doubt retailers saw much of a dip in their inventory as most companies have 2-3 weeks worth of supplies for any given product. The judge has also ordered LG to pay 130k ($181k) Euros to Sony for costs incurred during the hearing and an additional 200k ($278k) Euros for everyday that shipments of the PS3 are not returned to Sony.

[Via GamersMint]

PlayStation 3 Shipments to Europe Now Halted, Thanks to Sony vs. LG Lawsuit

You might remember that at the beginning of 2011, Sony Electronics started a lawsuit against Korean giant, LG. The lawsuit alleged that LG had violated on Sony’s cellphone patents in which case, Sony wanted all shipments of LG phones to the United States halted and civil damages be award to them. Quick to respond, LG filed a set of patent claims against the Sony’s PlayStation 3, indicating that they were the actual victims in this sad electronic world we all live in. With the first round over, LG has come out on top with the courts ruling in LG’s favor. This means that all current PlayStation 3 systems headed to Europe will be confiscated by customs for at least ten days while this mess continues to be sorted. The good news for European PlayStation fans is that most retailers have a few weeks worth of inventory on hand and there should not be an immediate impact. The bad news is that this is a temporary stock and until this lawsuit is settled, Sony cannot feed that market with new PlayStation 3 units. With an average of 100,000 units shipped to Europe each week and Sony closing the world wide sales gap of the PlayStation 3 versus Microsofts Xbox 360, Sony cannot let this drag on for long. Sony would not comment much on this matter:

“We are currently looking into this matter, and cannot make any comments at this point in time.”

[Via The Guardian]

Sony Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against LG

‘Tis a new year in the tech industry and what better way for it to start then a legal showdown between Sony and LG in the court system? Sony Electronics is filing a ITC patent infringement suit against Korean giant LG to block all future shipments of phones coming to the US while also seeking monetary damages in Civil Court. The suit targets LG phones including the Lotus Elite, Neon, Remarq, Rumor 2 and Xenon which Sony claims are infringements on their intellectual property. In particular, Sony is claiming that these devices transmit variable-bandwidth audio streams, live-preview camera snapshots and hands-off cellular calls, something that Sony believes it has the rights to.

“Sony has been keen to protect its patents,” said Yuji Fujimori, a Tokyo-based analyst at Barclays Capital. “U.S. is an important market for Sony as its mobile phone venture with Ericsson is trying to win a bigger share.”

The lawsuit is also said to target LG Blu-ray players as well though no current copy of the ITC complaint is currently available to list specifics.

[Via Bloomberg]