Sony sues Lik-Sang

After rumblings and threats over the last couple of months in the games press and news last week in Hong Kong press, Lik-Sang, online retailer of import gaming finery and thorn of the gaming giants for many years announced today that it is being sued by Sony.

According to Lik-Sang

"Sony of Europe alleges that Lik-Sang.com has breached Sony's Trade Mark rights by offering the PlayStation Portable (PSP) for sale to customers in the UK, and seeks a court order that would prevent Lik-Sang.com from selling or offering systems, games and accessories to customers in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA)."

I've not seen the claim but my understanding is that UK Trade Mark law does not have jurisdiction on HK. Further, HK's entire economy is based on import/export. The outcome will have massive repurcutions for businesses in the region.

International Legal Conflict

According to Trade Mark law in Hong Kong, the owners rights are 'internationally exhausted' once the goods have been placed on the market. Simply meaning that Sony cannot clobber retailers for selling to anyone outside Hong Kong. However, UK law does not subscribe to international exhaustion. What happens when two countries' laws conflict?

Joined up thinking?

Market segmentation is usually largely successful (for the manufacturers) in the games industry as they apply region encoding so only games you buy in Europe will play on European consoles. This whole problem has come about since Sony tried to mirror Nintendo's region free ideal. The problem is that the company does not act as one with the same goal of making money. Each region competes for profits but when you strip down the evil encrytion barriers the company ends up competing with itself. With just three weeks to 'European launch' i'm left thinking does the left hand know what the right hand is doing. I would deduce that there is something awry in the house of Sony.

According to the Lik-Sang Press statement:

"Lik-Sang's sales are an unlawful interference with Sony's economic interests", stated Sony's legal correspondence. The case relis on Sony's claim that Lik-Sang.com has advertised the PlayStation Portable products in a "dishonest manner". Lik-Sang.com will do its best to fight Sony's powers and appreciates any support from employees, friends and even customers.

If anyone said my business was trading in a dishonest manner it would sue them for defamation. Where's the acumen? Where's the nouse? It's all academic.

This action will have far reaching implications. Lik-Sang are well established in the global games arena often exporting hard to find software and hardware aswell as defeating the segmented market ideal of the corporations. If the corporations want to discriminate on pricing they have to expect customers will look elsewhere for a better deal, if it exists. It's obvious that Sony wants all these 'better deals' out of existance.

Support

Earlier last year Lik Sang announced their 100,000th customer. No doubt the public sympathies will be with LikSang. The court of public opinion is the most important one when you're in business, the rest of the industry are just scratching their heads at this whole thing.

I was speaking to a lawyer friend the other day who confirmed to me that companies tend to sue more frequently when the economical climate is not looking too hot. Perhaps this is just viewed as another revenue stream.

Businessmen find solutions. Lawyers find arguements. Everybody wants to make money. The answer is not litigation.

Ho hum.

"It breaks down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it and, if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry it, which doesn't really matter 'cause -- get a load of this -- if the cops stop you, it's illegal for them to search you. Searching you is a right that the cops in Amsterdam don't have."
Vincent Vega, Pulp Fiction