In a Friday statement, Sony Corp – which is entangled in a patent lawsuit with LG Electronics - said that the shipments of thousands of its seized PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles in the Netherlands had been release after a court hearing in the Hague.

Though LG had earlier won a court order that enabled the company to seize all new PS3 across the Netherlands, the key point of entry for Sony's imports to Europe, Sony had appealed against the seizure; and the preliminary seizure order has now been lifted.

Updating on the situation, a Sony spokesman said in Tokyo: “At a court hearing in the Hague yesterday, Sony's arguments were accepted and the seizure order was lifted. We understand that there will now be no problem re-starting imports of the PlayStation 3 to Europe.”

Even though the spokesman stopped short of disclosing the exact number of consoles that had been seized, he did mention that the court ruling pertained to consoles being held at Dutch customs as well as at Sony’s distribution centre.

The seizure of the Sony’s PS3 consoles in the Netherlands had resulted from Sony’s ongoing legal spat with LG Electronics, which has accused Sony of infringing use of its Blu-ray technology.

The lifting of the PS3 seizure order does not end the Blu-ray dispute between the two bigwig Asian tech companies. In its complaint filed with the U. S. International Trade Commission last year, Sony has sought a ban on the shipping of LG’s Rumor Touch and several other smartphones to the US.