Sony has allegedly threatened to take a company to court over its custom PS5 faceplate designs. The console giant has reportedly threatened Customize My Plates with legal action, following the launch of its unofficial PS5 faceplates.

In addition to that, and perhaps more financially painful for Customize My Plates, the brand has been forced to end production of its unofficial PS5 faceplates and refund everyone who ordered one.

Infringing Upon PS5 Trademarks

Given that we have seen how easy it is to take the PlayStation 5 apart in the official video above, it comes as no surprise that custom plates would soon be available. It doesn't matter whether you are buying a digital or physical PS5, you could get a new plate for either model.

Customize My Plates was formerly offering several new colorways, including silver, black, camo, blue, and red. However, no sooner had it launched its website, it was ordered to change the name. Prior to launch, the site was called PlateStation5 and then The Plate Station.

According to USPTO, a trademark infringement takes place when a trademark is copied in a way that may lead to consumers becoming confused, deceived, or mistaking the source of the goods. So, in the case of the former website's names, a change was necessary to avoid court action.

Forced to End Custom Plate Production

Having gone through the wringer with Sony over the name of its website, Customize My Plates had apparently been hit with further threats of legal action from Sony.

Video Games Chronicle reports that Customize My Plates has reached out via email, confirming that it has been forced to end production of the custom plates. This decision has come alongside the promise to refund anyone who has bought one of the plates up to now.

Unfortunately, changing the website name was allegedly not good enough for Sony, and the nightmare didn't end for Customize My Plates.

Sony's lawyers were soon back in touch with Customize My Plates to say that they felt that Sony's intellectual property extended to the PlayStation 5 faceplates. As such, this meant that Customize My Plates was forced to cease the sale and production of the custom plates.

Heading to the Customize My Plates website, you'll see that it's still active and that you can still order a custom skin. The custom plates are no longer available to buy, so you'll have to make do with a vinyl sticker if you want to add some pizzazz to your PS5.

Is This the End of Unofficial Peripherals?

While it is unlikely, this does demonstrate Sony's willingness to pull out the lawyer card if it thinks there is sufficient cause to do so.

While this may not mean an end to third party controllers and such, we may see Sony being less forgiving when faced with a product that infringes on copyright in other ways. But, then, where would we draw the line about what is acceptable and what isn't?