Lik Sang's sales of Sony PSP Consoles illegal, according to London High Court Judge

[wraggster]

The reaction from Lik Sang to yesterdays UK Court ruling:

Hong Kong, October 20th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, leading online retailer for videogame systems, games and cutting-edge gaming gear, was today informed that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc have obtained a judgment in the High Court of London ruling PSP sales of the popular web store to the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA) unlawful.

The court hearing took place on October 9 at the High Court of London, without Lik-Sang's legal representatives attending or arguing at the hearing. It is unclear at this point if this ruling will also affect exports of PlayStation 3 and other PlayStation-branded items. Furthermore, Sony intends to obtain an UK injunction against Lik-Sang's sales to the EEA.

The legal battle with Sony over Lik-Sang's legitimate exporting activities started during August 2005. Sony complained about the sales of PSP (PlayStation Portable) systems to Europe and launched a lawsuit in the High Court of Hong Kong, arguing that Lik-Sang advertises the Sony products "in a dishonest manner" and "unlawfully interferes with Sony's economical interests". They further launched a completely separate lawsuit against the Hong Kong based company in the courts of England for selling PSP consoles to customers in Europe and the UK, and also for mirroring the freely available PSP user guides on their servers alleging copyright infringement.

Hong Kong's laws are clear when it comes to parallel trade, and the company has no ties whatsoever with the UK. While Lik-Sang vigorously contested the UK's jurisdiction over the allegations, the judge apparently found that UK law should also apply to Hong Kong exporters. Sony has also threatened Lik Sang recently to initiate yet another lawsuit to prevent the sales of PlayStation 3 consoles to Europe.

How this decision will affect Lik-Sang's business is not entirely known at this time. The retailer is currently exploring its legal options and analyzing the consequences of this ruling.

"Fighting multiple lawsuits in different countries at the same time and paying high premiums to expensive lawyers is an overwhelming situation for a small company like Lik Sang. Launching separate court actions with separate claims and different judges is completely unnecessary, except for the fact that it helps reaching one single target: outspend Lik-Sang to death. Pay beyond", said Pascal Clarysse, Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com, clearly annoyed by the unfair situation. "And contrary to their claim, I don't believe they are suffering 'losses and damages' through Lik-Sang's activity".

[bm4n]

This is ridiculous, hardware is all we have...Software, Video, and Music is all intellectual property that we pay for the right to "enjoy"...now they are trying to say that we can't do what we want with the physical things we purchase?! Whats next, kraft sues parents who put hot dogs in their kid's mac & cheese because its kraft's intellectual property and its not in the user manual to add other foods?? And saying that mirroring a user guide is copyright infringement is...low. What are we in 3rd grade $ony? "But he called me names!" Grow up.

[Baboon]

$ony = Arse!

[ACID]

I guess im not aloud to import games anymore right sony. Im starting to hate thoes B===D sucking suns of B******

[S34MU5]

[lumisi]

Boycott PS3 !!

[yakumo]

I think that Sony does not want anymore to be an enterprise of creation of cutting-edge technology electronics, but wants to be like a Microsoft in the electronics market. They only believe in patents, royalties and money.

[Anger]

the thing is people will see right through it. sony thinks it can bully the entire industry the way it wants us to go. there going to find out how wrong they are.
i think what there doing to lik-sang is unecessary and evil. theres no need to destroy a company on a whim because they have no grounds for this. i hope some generous people chip in a large amount and help lik-sang beat the $#@! out of sony. i think sony is worse off than they want us to believe otherwise they wouldnt have considered anything like this. but i tell you this - i dont feel sorry for sony in the slightest because there bringing all this trouble on themselves. GO lik-sang GO!!!