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Lik-Sang's last words

Soon-to-be defunct importer blasts Sony's claims that it had nothing to do with the company's early demise.

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The soon-to-be shuttered Hong-Kong-based import game retailer Lik-Sang has released a final statement in the tit-for-tat verbal battle between it and industry giant Sony.

The company recently lost a court case in London to Sony, who contested that its selling of Japanese PSPs to Europe infringed on Sony trademarks, copyrights, and registered design rights. Sony then asserted its intentions to block all "grey importing" of its products.

Lik-Sang responded to this by circulating a statement to games industry personnel claiming that key Sony Europe executives bought Japanese PSPs from their company, and continued to name names. Sony issued a statement stating this was simply "sour grapes".

Today in his final e-mail as a Lik-Sang employee, marketing manager Pascal Clarysse hit back at Sony's claims that it had nothing to do with the importer's closure. "While they 'strongly denied that their actions have had anything to do with [Lik-Sang's] closing' in their statement, they still had the time to send a 15-page fax less than 24 hours later, outlining the terms of the order made by the UK court last week and asking Lik-Sang to pay the sum of £100,000 ($190,000) just for their legal costs before 4pm on November 1," he said. "The fax also includes a penal notice, nicely reminding the reader that not obeying the order (which means shipping any PlayStation branded product to any country in Europe) may mean sequestration of all assets and, in worst case, imprisonment for the directors of the company."

Lik-Sang also blasted Sony's statement that any Japanese PSPs which would have been bought by members of their company would have been solely for investigatory purposes. "Sony's unbelievable statement that all purchase orders made by their own directors 'would' be for investigatory purposes speaks volumes, and also doesn't explain why these and all the other orders placed by Sony officials were not revealed to the High Court," said Clarysse.

Clarysse concluded his statement on behalf of Lik-Sang by declaring that it was a sad day for import gaming. "Sony should be proud of having such a die-hard import gamers' community rushing to buy their products and supporting them with a passion. Instead, they march all over us," he said.

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