Sony and LG settle patent related disputes
Sony and LG have gone on to settle a series of disagreements that the two companies had been having in regards to the usage of certain technologies. Both the companies had been involved in a number of hefty lawsuits, mainly due to the fact that both the
companies inexplicably failed to renew their technology sharing agreement. What is rather amazing is the fact that the agreement ended three years ago and is yet to be renewed.
Sony were initially looking to take legal action over the first ever hack of the PS3, but on the very same day, LG went on to issue their own complaints against the company, in regards to their Blu-ray player, which breaches the patents that LG had in their
name.
LG demanded that immediate investigation be taken by the trade commission and during the process of the investigation, the shipments and sales of the United States be stopped.
This attempt by LG to get back at Sony can be regarded to be a sort of a revenge based complaint. Way back in December, Sony went on to claim that LG had breached patents that were held by Sony and had asked for actions to be taken against them. This time
around, it seems to be the exact same case, only with the teams reversing their positions in the lawsuit.
Sony has already gone on to sell nearly 41-million units worldwide, due to which it was rather unclear as to what LG were going to demand as a result of their lawsuit. Nonetheless, the company wanted all sales of the PS3 to be stopped in the United stated
and other parts of the world. LG were only successful in having shipments of the gaming consoles to Europe blocked temporarily, while thousands of units were withheld and seized by customs in Australia.
Nonetheless, it seems like LG have now had a massive change of heart, as they have withdrawn their lawsuit against Sony. The two companies seem to have worked out a mutual agreement, which has led to both of them backing out, before any serious damages were
done.
An LG spokesperson, when addressing the media about the ongoing situation was quoted to have said, “LG and Sony recently agreed to drop patent infringement lawsuits against each other.”
With the lawsuit now being dropped, it is a wonder as to how Sony managed to get LG to see otherwise. At the same time, it is also interesting to see LG trying to shut out a gaming console from being released, mainly because they themselves are yet to enter
the field of videogame consoles.
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