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

from the but-of-course dept

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.
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Filed Under: itc, patents, ps3
Companies: lg, sony


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  • identicon
    Snidely, 9 Feb 2011 @ 1:07am

    Point out the bad guy

    You make it sound like LG is the bad guy here when this is just a retaliation lawsuit against Sony for their original suit against LG. This is the sad state of affairs, but you have to patent up to protect yourself. Sony is the jackass that started it.

    http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/lg-files-itc-complaint-against-sony-goes-blow-for-blow/

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      faceless (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 1:28am

      Re: Point out the bad guy

      yeah, i was going to point out the exact same thing, this is retaliation.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2011 @ 1:28am

      Re: Point out the bad guy

      It's not like LG is any more in the clear. They're BOTH patent jackasses.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Jaws4theRevenge (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 1:41am

      Re: Point out the bad guy

      Sony sues LG, LG sues Sony, a lengthy court battle ensues and then they (probably) licence each other's patents.

      Uh, who is running these companies?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Michael, 9 Feb 2011 @ 5:00am

        Re: Re: Point out the bad guy

        The lawyers, obviously.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        harbingerofdoom (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 10:45am

        Re: Re: Point out the bad guy

        you forgot to add in that we all get to pay more for their products as an added bonus result.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2011 @ 1:43am

      Re: Point out the bad guy

      Last year we saw patent infringement suits spread like meningitis in a college dorm, and if this dispute is any sign, we can expect to see more of the same in 2011. Let the litigation begin!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2011 @ 4:25am

      Re: Point out the bad guy

      And this is promoting progress...how?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Michael, 9 Feb 2011 @ 5:00am

        Re: Re: Point out the bad guy

        Money progresses into the pockets of the lawyers.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2011 @ 2:15am

    A giant middle finger directed at sony?

    I strongly approve!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    scum sony patents, 9 Feb 2011 @ 2:20am

    money for old rope

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Matt Bennett, 9 Feb 2011 @ 5:50am

    "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

    "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code" Uh.......I know you're an open-platform advocate and all, that's fine, so am I, but it's a gaming console. What percentage of people buying a PS3, exactly, do you think were planning on jailbreaking it? Like 0.1%? That's frankly generous. You can get mad at Sony about the principle and all but there's no way it would affect their bottom line.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Pitabred (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 6:08am

      Re: "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

      Sure it will. I'm not buying any more games for my PS3 due to this crap. And they make their money off of sales of the games.

      It's bad enough that they're trying to extend the lifetime of the consoles past their traditional 5-year period. It's killing PC gaming, and it's slowing down hardware and software development across the board. And now they're trying to lock it down further.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Dan (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 6:21am

        Re: Re: "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

        I think PC gaming is killing itself. Not the gamers, but the use of intrusive DRM and the cost of hardware upgrades.

        If I put a game disk in a console, it's more likely to work then a PC game which has become a real crap shoot. The requirements on the box don't mean squat, anymore.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2011 @ 7:06am

          Re: Re: Re: "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

          Can someone show me proof that PC gaming is dying? I've been hearing this for a decade now.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • icon
            chris (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 12:23pm

            Re: Re: Re: Re: "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

            Can someone show me proof that PC gaming is dying? I've been hearing this for a decade now.

            it's not dying at all. if you look at the hours logged by people playing solitaire and mafia wars, the PC beats all other gaming devices by a hundredfold.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          The eejit (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 7:40am

          Re: Re: Re: "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

          That's a fallacy. There is a fantastic market for PC Gaming. Look at the record profits for Steam last year. Look at Good-Old-Games and their business model. Look back at the evolution of SecuROM. Having spoken to an actual EA employee who corrected me vociferously, he pointed out that it was a bad interaction between the early iterations and other programs that caused 95% of all the issues we heard about with Spore.

          I've had major problems with only one company's games, and that's Ubisoft. I will never ever buy an Ubisoft game again, after being forced to crack a game that I legitimately bought, and for which there was literally no other way to play the game outside of the crack. My crime?

          Using Windows 7. And this is for a game that was less than six months old at the time of purchase, and for which there was no response to my requests for help.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Matt Bennett, 9 Feb 2011 @ 7:33am

        Re: Re: "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

        It's quite possible you are in that

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      chris (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 12:17pm

      Re: "If Sony can't kill off interest in the PS3 by playing whac-a-mole with jailbreak code"

      What percentage of people buying a PS3, exactly, do you think were planning on jailbreaking it? Like 0.1%? That's frankly generous. You can get mad at Sony about the principle and all but there's no way it would affect their bottom line.

      my mother, my sister, my wife and my kids all complain that i won't "allow" them to have things like iphones.

      it's not like i have any authority to stop them from buying the things they want to buy, but as their only source of free tech support, they always dread me saying "i told you this would happen."

      extrapolating that, for every nerd that is capable of jail breaking something that sony pissed off, there is something like 5 consumers who trust that nerd's recommendations.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Dan (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 6:14am

    It's good to see major players get into this game.

    Once someone has the realization of how much money company 'A and B' spent and ended up just cross licensing patients with each other, they'll lobby to make changes in patent law to mitigate those costs. {possibly codifying mandatory cross licensing, or something...} That will put the money back into actual R&D where it belongs [for our benefit].

    It's also guaranteed that as soon as a major player gets barred using the ITC loophole, that's going to disappear...quickly.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Shon Gale (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 6:19am

    We all have to pay LG to reproduce any data on recording medium. Wha!!! Isn't this how computers work? LG hasn't been around that long. OK screw LG, who needs them and more crap products like Sony. Maybe they'll sue each other into oblivion. Please!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      harbingerofdoom (profile), 9 Feb 2011 @ 11:08am

      Re:

      seeing how LG as a company has been around in one form or another since 1947, yes LG has been around that long. they also happen to own zenith, have formed partner companies with phillips had done work on the 3DO and several other things that you wouldnt really think they were involved in.

      they probably got the patents through an acquisition or via work they had done in one of those areas i would guess.... havnt really read the actual patents.

      not that it either makes it better or excuses their actions, but there ya go...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ..., 1 Mar 2011 @ 12:49pm

    PC gaming isn't being killed off. PC games will always be around because it isn't one company making graphics cards, games, processors and everything else. Screw LG. I hope they go out of business.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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