LG sues Sony, calls for PlayStation 3 to be barred from US market

Hot on the heels of Sony modifying its PS3 jailbreaking suit to glean information on anyone even remotely involved comes a legal complaint that should beĀ  filed under a suitably sarcastic "one good turn deserves another." South Korea-based company LG Electronics alleged yesterday that Sony infringed its copyrights, singling out the PlayStation 3 console as the main offender.

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The complaint, which can be be read here, alleges Sony's inclusion of a Blu-ray drive inside its popular next-gen console directly conflicts with copyrights held by LGE - "patents addressed to certain elements of Blu-ray Disc playback," explains the file.

It goes on to request a permanent cease-and-desist order against Sony pertaining to the "importation, marketing, advertising, demonstrating, installing, servicing, repairing, and warehousing inventory of such Accused Products for distribution, sale and/or use in the United States."

LGE is also asking that the International Trade Commission look into the charges and act accordingly. And here we thought Sony would only be playing offense in 2011. Of course, there is some back story here that provides context to this new legal brouhaha.

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Patent news blog FossPatents theorizes that LGE may not be acting righteously: "What we're seeing here is retaliation. At the end of December, Sony filed an ITC complaint against LG, seeking an import ban for a list of mobile phones," says the site. After the agency agreed to look into it in late January, LGE just happens to pull a similar move.

We'll bring more on Sony's legal battles soon. In the mean time, what do you think of this lawsuit? Frivolous? Justifiable?

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