Sony Shuts Down the Production of Unofficial Panels for PS5
The dbrand company received a C&D letter from Sony, forcing them to cease production of the black side panels for the PS5 - Darkplates.
- Sony has sent a cease and desist letter for black panels for the PS5.
- The company dbrand has withdrawn them from sale wanting to avoid a lawsuit.
dbrand, the company that manufactures black panels for the PlayStation 5 some time ago wrote rather snidely that if Sony has a problem with the products they create, then the Japanese company should sue them. And that's exactly what happened, causing the black panels for the PS5 to stop being produced.
When they first went on sale in February, the official site stated that the unofficial console accessory company had fixed one of Sony's biggest design flaws (the lack of a black version of the PS5) and if the Japanese don't like it, they should sue them.
Not even a year has passed and dbrand's wish has been granted. As they reported, among others, on Reddittheir product - Darkplates - disappeared from sale, because a lawyer representing Sony contacted them and ordered to stop distribution of this product. Otherwise, a lawsuit would be filed for copyright infringement. Bloody so far the company has not tried to take up the gauntlet and immediately raised the white flag.
In the pre-court letter made available, we can read, among other things:
"dbrand is selling sells faceplates for the PS5 console (in both standard edition and digital edition configurations) that replicate SIE's protected product design. Any faceplates that take the form of our client's PS5 product configuration, or any similar configuration, and are produced and sold without permission from Sony violate our client's intelectual property rights in the distinctive console design.
Thanks to the enormous popularity of the PS5 console, the unique design of the device, including the faceplates, is unambiguously associated with Sony."
Interestingly, the Japanese company admits that currently it does not have patented the console's design, and the application that has been submitted is still under consideration. However, this did not prevent it from gently suggesting dbrand stops selling its faceplates. If someone is bored with the white version, they will have to wait for officially licensed products, which will receive SIE's blessing.
