Not That Guy - Patent Fallout, LG vs Sony

For the past few weeks we at FreakandNitro.com have been covering the patent disputes between LG and Sony Corp. Well this week things took a decidedly nasty turn for Sony as LG won an injunction against the Playstation 3 in Europe for patent infringement. Starting today all shipments of PS3's into Europe (including Brittain) will be confiscated. 

A quick bit of history on this dispute. The fight started, not surprisingly, from Sony. Their legal department being the work-a-holic sue everyone and their little dog too types decided it would be fun to claim patent infringement on LG's golden egg; their smartphones. Old news now, but the threat of an injunction would force LG to halt shipments to the United States. LG in a counter suit filed the same complaint for patent infringement with regards to blue-ray technology in the PS3, worldwide.Both companies then sent out the same complaints for their TV lines leaving very little else off the table in their fight of one upmenship. And then yesterday Europe became the first region to bite the bait and decided in LG's favor with regards to the PS3 blue-ray infringement.

How could this be though? Did not Sony champion  the Blueray line? They are its greatest allies, the inventors, the people who own that shit? LG can't have anything on them. I mean they make phones and TV's no? No LG's got a strong hold on the blue-ray tech. LG along with about 15 others are part of the Blue-Disc board of developers and development team. Ei. they put some major research into blue-ray too. I assume at this point, that what is happening is a result of the board naively thinking that no one would sue each other for using functions of a product they developed as a group. Thanks to this little spat they probably wont make that mistake again.

So what happens at this point?  Well the injunction currently lasts ten days. At which point LG can continue to ask for extensions. Sony on the other hand can of course appeal. Till then most stores in Europe have about 2 weeks of stock and might be able to withstand the freeze, provided Sony succeeds in lifting the ban, else all hell may break loose. In addition many orders in Europe are direct or pre-ordered and so the impact on those sales may be more immediate. As an extra twist this injunction puts LG in an interesting position to request that the withheld stock be destroyed. To be honest its not being considered an option, but at 100,000 units a week that would be quite the story. Picture the video footage for that one. Meanwhile the threat of a US injunction looms. We may still yet see Playstations become contraband in American ports. 

Moral of the story: Sony needs to rein in their legal team, and fast. Having acquired a bit of a history of going on a power trip, suing fans, hobbyists and innovators who contribute to Sony, the legal team has done nothing but mired Sony in problems and tarnished the otherwise good reputation of the company. They've started this fight now they need to step back and end it.

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Posted in: Editorial,Not That Guy