Sony threatens legal action against company selling customized side panels for PS5

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps5-faceplate-site-cancels-orders-after-sony-threatens-legal-action/1100-6483982/

This company which was known as PlateStation5 until Sony threatened legal action over their name changed their name to "Customize My Plates" has now said it will no longer sell the plates for the PS5 because Sony lawyers threatened action again saying the plates were the intellectual property of Sony.

I saw that earlier. I can't really blame Sony, as i'll bet they've got things lined up for custom plates, as well as the fact that their initial name encroached on Sony's IP quite heavily. Definitely sucks, but I can't really fault Sony.

If this were Ninty just throwing lawyers at everyone, it may be different.

Cows...

Etsy will most likely have a bunch and for cheap. No bid deal.

so just sell wraps? lol

Is the legal threat by Sony ongoing even after Customize My Plates changed its name a few days ago from PlateStation5?

Makes sense to me. You can't take someone else's design and making money from it without some sort of agreement.

Sony's lawyers also stated that their PS5 trademark extended to the plates, which is probably correct. Sony will likely sell plates through 3rd-party for a cut of the profits, so they may come to some kind of deal in the future.

that is what they are doing..IMO wraps will be a cheaper option anyways

yep.. the Sony lawyers said the side plates were Sony's intellectual property

Does anyone recall if MS went after people selling the face plates for the 360? I know you can still buy them from 3rd parties now

Saw Xbox pope said he has some big announcements coming, wonder if he's teaming up with some publishers for custom plates on the Ps5....

@regnaston:

Probably those pay royalties.

So they should have gone through sony.

Apparently Sony can lol.

All the more reason to build a PC.

You wont have Corsair, NZXT, Phantek, or any other case manufacturer breathing down your neck for taking their panels to a paint shop or artist or welder to have them customized.

Does Sony have patents on the covers? If not, the company should be able to label them as "5th Generation P-Console covers" or something. This is as silly. Every phone case company doesn't have to licensed through Apple.

Sony's lawyers argue that the faceplates are covered under the copyright.

Also, a protective case is different from the actual cover, so it wouldn't be the same.

Who knows what could go wrong with covering that box with unauthorized covers, thing might go up in flames. I am worried of that happening without any third party variables.

The good news is this probably means Sony plans to monetize different custom plates - which I know people gave been clamoring for. The bad news is they probably won't be cheap because they will be official licensed plastic plates

Thanks for the copyright info. I just scanned the article, admittedly.

A protective case COULD be different from a console cover. But I would argue that it isn't. A phone case provides cosmetics and protection, just like this console cover does. I would also be willing to bet that cosmetics is a bigger selling point on phone cases than the degree of protection, otherwise people would be walking around with Otterbox looking bricks.

I'm filing this under don't care.

You could argue anything, but replacing a portion of the console with a 3rd-party component could well infringe on copyright.

A protective case is entirely different from the initial cover, as the protective case is designed to protect that very cover.

Sony don't really have a case. The best they could do is threaten to void people's warranty for using a 3rd party mod.

Doesn't really matter, unlicensed 3rd party modifications have been sold for a long time for electronics and machines. Including the faceplates for the Xbox 360. Maybe Sony want to monopolise the market, but it doesn't really hold much weight. Sony would have the harder job to prove their case.

Since when has the law been able to stop 3rd party alternatives of non invasive modifications? You could make a case against internal or external modifications which bypass anti piracy security. This is just a heavy weight corperate threat.

And they haven't really got much of a case with the name either. It could be argued either way.

"Sony's lawyers also stated that their PS5 trademark extended to the plates, which is probably correct."

They could claim the trademark extends to the electrical plug, doesn't mean it'll hold up.

These should be pretty easy to make with a 3d printer, no? If so Sony won’t be able to police all the home brewers out there.

You cant blame a company for trying to ahead of the competition, but assuming there is the option to go through Sony they have done that.

But what if there isn't one because Sony haven't sorted out what they are going to do yet? At that point its a bit cruel to punish another company.

Really Sony? Why not just hire these guys Sony to do the work for you and everyone wins. Including your consumers.

inb4 Sony doesn't even sell different panels and only uses this feature to make custom consoles for bundles.

inb4 there are tons you can buy on ali-express and ebay.

So Sony threatens legal action for trademark abused over similar sounding name but allows magazines with 'Official Playstation' in their names without having to do anything with it.

I was hoping to get a side panel that said “Sub RDNA 2 features, But Super fast loads”.

Shame.

Sony so greedy. It’s a piece of plastic, so stupid.

The fact that they have nothing to do with them doesn't mean they didn't get permission from sony.

In fact the official PS magazine came for 10 years with a demo disk were in hell do you think those demos came from? They weren't printed by the magazine without having the help of sony.

I am sure also royalties were in place.

ali express got you covered on the plates if you dont want to pay up for proprietary

Cool you agree they are biased source who pads Sony games scores.

Makes sense, Sony probably has their own plans for releasing aftermarket plates and accessories, that is ridiculous that this company thought they could come in and leech profits off Sony especially before it’s even released.

I don't blame Sony for doing that since they probably can milk that. But it's just 2 pieces of plastic LOL