European Customs to Seize All Incoming PS3 Shipments

LG has to be smiling behind their hands presently as they won a preliminary injunction against Sony in their patent lawsuit. As a result European customs must seize and hold all incoming Playstation 3 shipments for 10 days.

The Hague’s civil court ruling means that since last week tens of thousands of Playstation 3 consoles have been nabbed by customs. That could put a serious dent in Sony’s numbers and gamer attempts to get their hands on new consoles.

The point of dispute is the Blu-Ray Disc technology which the two companies are fighting over.

According to reports, Sony imports 100,000 consoles per week to Europe with stores having less than three weeks of supplies according to The Guardian.

LG is trying to get a similar injunction in the US where 10 days could begin to mean shortages when you consider the amount of distribution that needs to be done there.

If Sony loses this patent battle they might have to hand over millions of dollars to LG on, what one might assume, a per unit basis. It could also mean that they will be forced to pay licensing fees to continue use of Blu-Ray in the consoles. That all probably means gamers waiting for a Playstation 3 price break will be waiting a rather long time.