LG has asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban sales of PS3s and Sony Bravia TVs as part of patent infringement claims brought against the platform holder.

LG alleges that Sony's high-definition TVs infringe four patents, while products with Blu-ray players including PS3 infringe four others, Bloomberg reports.

The ITC is also investigating claims by Sony that LG mobiles are infringing seven Sony patents, while a civil lawsuit launched by Sony targets LG Blu-ray players.

According to the report, the Blu-ray patents in question are for a means of dealing with multiple data streams, as well as a system to reproduce data that's stored on a read-only device.

Sony said last week that lifetime PS3 sales stood at 47.9 million units as of December 31, 2010.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/28 ... in-the-us/

Close the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Once again, thank god this [LIFTED] isn't possible in Europe.

LG Asks US Gov't To Block Import Of All PS3s Over Patent Infringement

If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code, perhaps it can get some assistance from the US government. It appears that LG, using the ITC loophole is asking the International Trade Commission to block the import of PS3s into the US for supposedly violating four of its patents.

The patents in question:
7,701,835: Recording medium having data structure for managing reproduction of data streams recorded thereon and recording and reproducing methods and apparatuses

7,577,080: Recording medium with a linking area thereon and apparatus and methods for forming recording, and reproducing the recording medium

7,619,961: Read-only recording medium and reproducing method thereof

7,756,398: Recording medium and method and apparatus for reproducing text subtitle stream for updating palette information

Ah, innovation in the 21st century. It's all about figuring out what gov't-supported barriers you can put up to force your competitors to just hand over cash.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201102 ... ment.shtml

Oh ffs...

Very vague patents. And why wasn't this settled years ago. It is not exactly a new product.

I'm guessing it's because with the product in the marketplace it's really, really not in Sony's interest to recall stock, so LG can some very hefty payment out of them instead because the alternatives would cost Sony so much more.

Only if the patent is valid and chances are that it might not be.

Sorry, wasn't clear. Was referring to the comments about why I suspect LG have left it this late to kick off as referred to by belchingmatt.

Even so by delaying so it costs the defendant more in recall would probably nullify the claim. Unless they had brought this to the attention of Sony they could have problems. Though they could be trying to quantify their losses which could cause a delay.