PS3 imports banned in Europe

[Khephren]

Europe begins PS3 banning! ;P

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/02/ps3-shipments-halted-in-europe-as-sony-and-lg-fight-over-blu-ray-patent.ars

[Harrison]

Another news item about that can be found in The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/28/playstation-3-lg-legal-dispute).

Does anyone know what the actual claims are by LG against Sony regarding the Blu-Ray technology? I thought Sony invented Blu-Ray?

[Khephren]

Yeah they did invent it, but it builds on CD-ROM and CD-RW etc.
Best info I could find is:
http://www.itcblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/LGbluray-complaint-4feb11.pdf

[Harrison]

Good find.

So the patents LG are trying to say Sony have infringed are actually the playback of date from Blu-Ray discs. And reading quickly through the document if looks like LG secured patents on the rights to these things in 2007 and later. After the PS3 and its ability to play Blu-Rays was released? I'm now confused.

Also how can a company obtain the patent to a technology that is used globally across the market, and had been for years before it? Multi Angle playback for example existing on DVD. Such complex patent disputes are hard to work out. Can anyone simplify this more?

[Harrison]

OK reading more into this. It seems that when Sony broke away from HD-DVD and developed Blu-Ray they worked with some partners on the video playback for this new format, one of these being LG. LG were responsible for developing parts of the playback software that Blu-Ray uses. Sony had a gentleman agreement to use this in their products, as much as the others did to use other parts developed by each other for this format, but they had no actual legally binding agreement. Moving forward. Recently Sony discovered LG had stolen some of Sony's smartphone technology/software and put it into their own smartphones, and then sold them lower than Sony's. Sony were obviously not happy with this, sued and won. LG are just trying to get their own back with this PS3 lawsuit. Childish of what!

[Harrison]

When it was first announced LG had put a ban on Sony importing PS3s to Europe, many were fearing the worst; that stock might start to dry out, however, it now appears Sony have found a way to bypass the import ban.

The loophole found is that the ban only applies to singular countries, and not the whole EU, meaning all Sony have to do is start importing consoles to a country other than Holland. If LG want to stop Sony importing to Europe then they will need to impose a ban on most European counties, which will be a lengthy process. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Harrison]

The Hague's civil court of Justice has just ruled in Sony's favour against LG's, ordering that the 300,000 PS3's currently seized by customs be released to Sony for distribution in Europe.

This isn't the end of the battle, as this ruling wasn't to settle the actual dispute over patent infringement by Sony, but it is a small victory for Sony. LG have been ordered to pay €130,000 in legal fees, and if it doesn't comply, it will face a fine of €200,000 per day until it does!

However, it is starting to look less likely that LG can win this one, and their idea to get back at Sony after they were successfully sued for infringing patents of Sony's last year could go badly wrong. I personally can't see how they can claim the patent rights to 4 year old device (PS3) which was released and on sale before LG even filed for the patent in 2007. Very odd.