Playstation 3 victim of custom seizures

Last month KitGuru reported that LG were trying to ban the Playstation 3 from the USA. It appears, based on latest reports that shipments of the black shiny console will be running dry as custom officials are ordered to seize European shipments also.

This court ordered ban on imports was initated due to LG winning a preliminary injunction against Sony in a patent spat over the BluRay technology included in the console.

Sony import over 100,000 consoles into Europe every single week so if this ban is held for more than the current 10 day restriction it may prove difficult to get hold of the console. LG also applied for the same ban in other countries such as the USA, but that has yet to be decided.

Patent disputes are the problem for Sony, and if LG win the case then Sony will be forced to pay a licensing fee for every Playstation 3 console ever sold worldwide. As that relates to 40 million consoles at this point, it could prove an expensive defeat for Sony with potentially hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.

KitGuru says: The Playstation 3 consoles are being held right now in the Rotterdam and Schiphol airport, the main shipping import locations for Europe hardware.

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