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Sony may go after PSP sellers

Grey imports threaten fabric of society

Sony may take further legal action against other retailers and websites which are selling mobile Playstations ahead of the delayed UK launch in September.

Sony took one-man reseller ElectricBirdLand to court on Monday to seek a temporary injunction to stop the site selling PSPs. But similar machines and accessories are available at several High Street stores as well as online.

A spokesman for Sony told el Reg: "We will take all action necessary against anyone selling grey imported PSPs." He refused to give a definition of what Sony considers "grey importing".

Dan Morelle, who runs ElectricBirdLand from his home, said: "If they'd just phoned me up and asked me I'd have stopped after I'd got rid of the stock I had. I'm just a little guy working on his own from a tiny office with three shelves of stock. We have no intention of selling them after the official launch. Why can't they behave like competent business people?"

Morelle says he has seen PSP machines and accessories for sale at several High Street shops and well known online stores.

Morelle now has a month to provide evidence to the court before a hearing to decide whether he should be stopped from selling imported Playstations until the full court hearing.

Morelle, who represented himself at court against six legal bods from Sony, said: "I don't understand why they are doing this. We should sit down and talk about what our common goals are and how we can come to a commercially sensible solution."

Morelle said he has sold several PSPs to Sony companies. On the day he received his first legal letter he also got an order for £1,500 of PSPs from a Sony subsidiary - that money paid for his first legal consultation. On Monday, the day of the trial, six PSPs were delivered to Sony Austria.

Morelle said both sides should make a payment to the charity for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, or PSP, which has lost its top Google ranking to the mobile Playstation.®

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