LG Wants To Block Sales Of The PS3 In The US

[Ares]

That's right you didn't read that wrong LG is trying to block sales of the PS3 and Bravia HDTV's in the US. There is more to this story than meets the eye I'll give you a little background as to what lead to this, back in Dec. Sony filed a complaint to the ITC(International Trade Commission) that LG mobile phones are infringing on seven Sony patents, also Sony has brought a civil suit targeting LG Blu-ray players.

Now the ITC has the power to block imports that violate US patent laws, now the stakes are high for both of these companies since they are major players in the North American market and a ruling in favor of one or the other will be a game changer for both those directly and indirectly involved.

Not to be out done LG decides that they would file a complaint with the ITC this month (Feb 4th) against Sony claiming Sony's HDTV's infringes upon four patents and their Blu-ray players including the PS3 another four and along with that LG files a civil suit as well seeking cash for unauthorized use of their inventions, both civil suits have been filed in federal court in California.

Source

 

[GranteedEV]

Both these companies sound very petty right now.

Actually Sony has been rather petty with the PS3 in general, what with their ridiculous "protection" to the point of that whole linux fiasco.

 

[Ares]

The linux issue really wasn't an issue til they decided to remove it from the Fats since the Slims never had this ability, but really it was Geohot who decided to exploit it which in turn lead to it's removal. In reality the removal of the ability to install linux has done little to stop the cracking of the PS3 since the discovery of the PS3's private keys which has lead to custom firmware installs and the like, next stop for Sony will be the permanent banning of consoles like Xbox did.

 

[anocer]

I seriously doubt that PS3 sales will get blocked.

If anything (worst case for Sony) they would have to pay LG some fee for use of their tech. They would also be restricted from selling those PS3s that used LGs tech (if LGs accusations are true).

Microsoft shipped the first Xbox console with more than 20 separate variants of DVD drives (I was a hardware engineer @ Microsoft on the first Xbox and tested these drives personally); Sony almost certainly does something very similar.