Sony is suing Multilaser for trademark infringement and unfair competition involving dualshock control, used from the first PlayStation to the PS4. In the lawsuit filed in the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo (TJ-SP), the Japanese giant accuses Multilaser of manufacturing joysticks with the same design, violating the “trade dress”, and requires not only the closing of the sale of accessories, but also the payment of R $ 60 thousand in damages.
In the legal action documents obtained by Tecnoblog, Sony does not specify the models of controls sold by Multilaser that copy DualShock. However, after a brief search on the Brazilian manufacturer’s website, it was possible to find more than one joystick that would fit the description of the process.
In the Computer and Accessories section of the site, for example, the “Joypad Control for PS2” code JS028 is available, which mimics both the construction of DualShock 2 and the standard buttons “X, ball, triangle and square”, whose trademark is owned by Sony.
Among the latest products in the Warrior line — Multilaser’s gamer segment — the JS083 code PS4 and PC joystick also uses buttons in the “X, ball, triangle and square” pattern. There are also several other examples available on the manufacturer’s website.
For Sony, the existence of these products is a “violation of industrial property rights”, can “cause confusion in consumers”, and puts the Japanese giant in “the duty to indemnify as property and off-balance sheet damages”.
In the suit, Sony claimed that Multilaser was violating the trade dress of the original control with these accessories. In other words, the Brazilian manufacturer would not have plagiarized DualShock completely, but rather based on the industrial design of the product and made some subtle changes to mimic the original joystick.
In addition to requiring copies of DualShock to be removed from the market, Sony asked for $60,000 in compensation for moral damages. Judge Renata Maciel, TJ-SP, ruled that the appeal of the owner of the PlayStation was valid and initially ordered Multilaser to stop the sale of accessories, under penalty of two fines in case of non-compliance: a single of R $ 100 thousand and more daily fines of R $ 20 thousand.
After this first decision, Multilaser filed an appeal asking for a six-month period to exhaust inventories before closing sales. However, even agreeing to take the controls off the market, the Brazilian manufacturer also set out its views on the accusations.
In the appeal, Multilaser stated that the packaging of all joysticks mentioned that the accessories were only “compatible with PlayStation” and that there was “no reproduction and infringement of the products or trademark infringement or trade dress”.
According to the brand’s lawyers, the sale of the controls would not be harming Sony, nor causing confusion in consumers. The defense also maintained that the DualShock brand and the symbols “X, ball, triangle and square” could not be exclusive to the PlayStation, as they were just “English words” and “geometric figures”.
After this appeal, Judge Renata Maciel requested evidence from both parties to complement the process. A request for expertise was also opened with external experts to analyze the products and decide which of the two companies has the strongest argument.
The lawsuit began in February 2020 and remains open to this day, in December 2021, still without a final decision. In TJ-SP, the process runs under the number 1011272-67.2020.8.26.0100.
