Dbrand has returned with a new line of black PS5 faceplates, which the company says is a “checkmate” for Sony‘s lawyers.
Since being threatened with lawsuits after the company told Sony “go ahead, sue us”, Dbrand has returned with another product called Darkplates 2.0 (thanks, VGC).
In a statement on the company’s own subreddit, Dbrand has broken down the situation from a legal standpoint.
“You can’t successfully sue someone over an alleged “design infringement” without a registered design patent. Sony did not have a registered design patent for the PS5’s side panels when we launched Darkplates (or for many, many months following the release).”
“We didn’t think they’d ever get one. They did. Here we are.”
Darkplates 2.0 “successfully closes the loop” on the dispute and “neutralises any future infringement claims from Sony”. The new product has a brand new shape, and includes added vents to combat the PS5’s “wildly inefficient thermal design”.
Darkplates are back. Checkmate, Lawyers. https://t.co/abbljR7isp pic.twitter.com/8ArvWRt0ZS
— dbrand (@dbrand) October 19, 2021
Discussing the added vents, Darkplates added that it is happy to licence the design to Sony, though note that it will “find that our rates are outrageous”.
On Dbrand’s site, both disc edition and digital edition plates list a shipping date beginning from January 2022.
Despite presenting the legal status of Darkplates 2.0 confidently, Dbrand admitted that Sony will “probably” still sue, though now it allegedly has “no basis to allege infringement”.
“If they want to try, they’d better be ready to pay our legal fees”, ends Dbrand’s Reddit statement.
In other news, Valve has confirmed that not every Steam game will run on the Steam Deck, though the company is reviewing every game on the store to assess compatibility.
Valve has also shared more on the process behind determining compatibility, revealing four categories that Steam games will be placed into.
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