San Diego – Reacting to a patent infringement suit filed by Sony, LG Electronics has filed its own patent infringement complaint, attempting to have sales of the PlayStation 3 banned in the United States.

The battle began in December when Sony, the Tokyo-based consumer electronics giant, filed a complaint claiming that LG’s mobile phone and Blu-ray technology infringes on seven of its patents.  LG responded by filing two complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission, claiming that Sony’s Blu-ray drives, specifically the PS3, infringe on four of its patents for gaming consoles.  In the complaint, LG is requesting a permanent order against the “importation, marketing, advertising, demonstrating, installing, servicing, repairing, and warehousing inventory of such Accused Products for distribution, sale and/or use in the United States.”

The speculation has been that LG’s complaint is more about a vengeful retaliation because, if LG is successful limiting Sony’s imports into the United States, that would obviously deal a serious financial blow to Sony.  The International Trade Commission is researching claims from both LG and Sony and reserves the right to ban imports of any infringing products to the United States.