14 DAY TRIAL // Reports are saying that custom officials in European Union countries are now seizing shipments of the PlayStation 3 home-gaming console from Sony that are entering the territory, as a direct result of a legal battle that is being waged between Japanese electronics giant Sony and South Korean company LG.
A civil court in the Hague has issued a preliminary injunction that allows all PS3 shipments coming into the United Kingdom and continental Europe to be confiscated while the wider legal issues, linked to patent protection, are being decided.
The preliminary order is issued for 10 days, but LG can ask for it to be extended after that period.
A Sony Computer Entertainment Europe representative has stated, “We are currently looking into this matter and cannot make any comments at this point in time.”
The injunction seems to have caught the company by surprise.
There are reports that tens of thousands of PlayStation 3 consoles have already been seized and are now held in Dutch warehouses.
The preliminary injunction could mean that those who are looking to buy the Sony made platform in Europe in the coming days or even weeks could have a problem with availability as in store stocks are being exhausted and no more consoles are allowed in.
Earlier in the year, LG also took the patent issues in front of the United States International Trade Commission, aiming to stop all imports of the PlayStation 3 and the Bravia brand television sets in the United States.
It's not clear when the dispute will be resolved, but now it seems there's a very clear possibility that imports could also be stopped, for a while at least, on the United States market.
At the moment, the PlayStation 3 is lagging behind the Xbox 360 from Microsoft in terms of sales and traditionally the European market has been more welcoming to the Sony console.