European PSP Launch Still Under Threat?

It's been known for a while that Sony was forced to push back the European launch of their PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld game console to sometime during the third quarter of this year, tentatively this September. Unfortunately, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe isn't too keen on the idea retailers in PAL territories importing Japanese and North American PSPs to sell in the meantime. They have issued cease and desist orders to online retailers asking them to suspend the apparently brisk sales of import PSPs. Naturally not all e-tailers are happy with this, and amidst the hot air GamesIndustry.biz discerns other possible reasons as to why the European PSP launch has been so fraught with setbacks:

"Sony's failure to secure these trademarks could potentially lead to further delays to the European launch of the PSP, or could result in the costly re-branding of a product which has already proved to be a hit in the US and Japan," [ElectricBirdLand] said.

[ElectricBirdLand managing director Dan Morelle] points out that the 'PSP' initials are currently used by UK firm Owtanet Ltd for their Owtanet PSP software, standing for Publishing, Shopping and Profiles.

An Owtanet representative confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that it registered the PSP trademark in 2000, but declined to offer further comment as "legal proceedings are currently underway."

ElectricBirdLand says that the use of 'UMD', which Sony has titled its proprietary optical storage solution, is also being contested by processor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on the grounds that it is too similar to 'AMD'. AMD representatives said they were not in a position to comment at the time of writing.

Previously SCE was not confident they would be able to meet demand for the PSP in both North America and Europe combined, and it appears they still have their doubts. The company has recently acknowledged that they may consider outsourcing PSP assembly to plants outside of Japan (like in Taiwan and China) in order to keep production numbers up. Despite this, SCE is confident they are prepared to handle the intellectual property issues and that the PAL launch will see no further delays.