All Europe-bound Playstation 3 Consoles Seized from Sony Logistics Center in Netherlands

Oh ho ho! The plot thickens. Florian Mueller at Foss Patents reports that he received a document from a Dutch Patent Lawyer that gave LG permission to seize all Playstation 3 consoles in the Tilburg, Netherlands Sony Logistics Center between March 3rd and tomorrow. That being their main distribution point in Europe means, there may be no more Playstation 3 consoles available within two weeks.

Sony did file an appeal and tomorrow March 10, 2011, in The Hague (where the higher instance court is based) at 2 PM Central European Time will be a hearing. If the court finds for LG that could mean they get to store those seized Playstation 3 consoles until the entire procedure is finished and a judgment handed down.

In the history of video games I cannot remember something of this magnitude. It certainly seems like LG is very confident in their belief that their patents are being infringed upon. Any items seized and stored by customs will be done so at the expense of LG, if they lose.

Sony had not been notified prior to any of the seizures as the judge believed it would have let them hide or move the consoles.

Now this is completely separate from the three shipments that have been reported seized at the Amsterdam airport.

Thanks again to Florian Mueller for the heads up and great information in regards to this ongoing situation. To read the court order and more of Florian�s excellent insight click the link to his blog.