The same day Sony threatened to sue anybody for posting the first-ever hack of its PlayStation 3 console, the videogame maker was itself hit with allegations that the Blu-ray player in the device breaches patents owned by LG Electronics.

LG, of Seoul, South Korea, claims in a complaint with the International Trade Commission (.pdf) that the Sony PS3 violates two patents in connection with how the videogame console renders Blu-ray data.

The claim came Friday, as Sony made a sweeping demand for pretrial discovery in its lawsuit against New Jersey hacker George Hotz. He’d earned Sony’s ire by releasing the first full jailbreak for the 4-year-old console, enabling the PS3 to play pirated and home-brew games.

Hotz, who faces unspecified damages, is accused of breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on allegations of trafficking in so-called “devices,” or code that circumvents measures designed to protect copyright works. Sony did not respond for comment.

LG, meanwhile, is demanding an “immediate investigation” by the trade commission and wants it to block the PlayStation 3 from being sold in the United States. Sony has sold about 41 million units worldwide.

The LG-Sony brouhaha is part of an ongoing infringement flap between the two electronics concerns. Sony demanded in December that the commission bar LG from distributing cellphones in the United States, amid accusations LG breached Sony phone patents.

Photo: PsuedoGil/Flickr

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