News that LG has chosen to take direct action to prevent tens of thousands of Sony PlayStation 3s from entering the European marketplace is a sign that the Korean electronics giant has decided the time has come to get tough. But what message does this send to the wider consumer electronics industry and how could it influence disputes in the future?
LG's decision to intervene by approaching customs officials in the Netherlands directly, while not unprecedented, is still an unusual step to take in a patent dispute, where the alleged misuse of the protected technology by Sony is not yet proven.
LG won a preliminary injunction at the civil courts in the Netherlands and used this to temporarily block entry of the new PlayStation 3s at Rotterdam and Schiphol airport.
This type of intervention by the patent holder is more common in the case of brand-related, trade mark disputes, where a company is trying to block entry of 'lookalike' or counterfeit goods.
In such cases, the fake appearance of the goods is usually sufficient to persuade customs officials that it is necessary to impound the goods, pending the outcome of an investigation.
It remains unclear whether Sony's decision to import the PSVs was a deliberate attempt to ignore the preliminary injunction and the Civil Court of Justice's findings. It probably wasn't. It was probably little more than a logistical mistake, resulting from a breakdown in internal communication between Sony's legal and distribution teams or shipping delays from Japan to the Netherlands.
Whatever the chain of events that led to the confiscation of goods in this particular case, it is clear that LG is not prepared to stop there. They have since persuaded the US International Trade Commission to investigate claims that Sony infringes patents covering the technology in its PlayStations and some Bravia TVs.
News of this investigation is a further sign that LG means business and that the ITC is fast becoming a massive battleground for patent disputes.
Karl Barnfather, patent attorney and electronics industry specialist at Withers & Rogers LLP - a leading UK firm of patent and trade mark experts. kbarnfather@withersrogers.com.