Sony Is Suing Lik-Sang.com

Sony doesn't joke around when it comes to PSP, especially when its precious portable console is being sold without its consent.

Sony's strategy to postpone by almost six months the launching of the PSP console in Europe, after the launchings from Japan and US, has created a door for the inventive entrepreneurs to make some profits, by speculating on the Europeans' eagerness to play games and to view UMD formatted movies.

After suing in June Dan Morelle, the owner of a British site which commercializes PSPs imported from Japan, now, Sony is going against another company, this time from Hong Kong, Lik-Sang.com, one of the biggest retailers of consoles and accessories.

Just like in Morelle's case, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc have initiated legal actions against Lik-Sang.com, charging them with trademark infringement. The objective of the complaint filed at the Hong Kong High Court is the issuing of a court order that would block Lik-Sang.com's right to sell any product in Europe.

This is not the first clash between Sony and Lik-Sang.com, in June, the Japanese company threatening to file another lawsuit, after it had discovered that the Hong Kong-based web site was offering free copies of the PSP manual, which was obtained from Sony's site.

"This lawsuit comes as a total surprise to Lik-Sang.com, given that the laws of Hong Kong are clear when it comes to parallel trade. Hong Kong's legislation is based on the fact that allowing parallel and free trade will restore natural competition and benefit consumers with lower prices. Hong Kong, one of the pioneering countries respecting worldwide exhaustion of trademark rights, allows free trade once an item entered the market for sale," said the company in a press release.

It's hard to anticipate the exact outcome of the dispute, but given the circumstance, Sony has all the chances to win!