Dbrand’s PS5 Darkplates Pulled from Sale

[Uncrowned Guard]

Dbrand started selling custom black side plates for the PS5 to offer users options over the factory white plates early this year.  The company is well known for selling custom skins and other user customization items for popular electronic devices, but Sony has never been much of a fan of this type of practice (although they are certainly not the only ones). 

The Darkplates were a fully-featured replacement plate for the console that utilizes a very detailed Dbrand engraving pattern alongside the black color scheme.  The company seemed to anticipate some legal action against this product as even they featured the line “Go ahead, sue us.” right on the product page.

The cease-and-desist order sent by Sony to Dbrand this week references a violation of Sony’s trademark of their popular controller symbols and Dbrands was quick to point out that those do not exist as part of this product.  However, it does appear that the letter is mostly focused on the actual physical design of the side plate using a Sony-owned design and connection to their console.  Dbrand breaks down the order on their Reddit and you can view it here (just be advised that it does have quite a few profanities involved).

Dbrand has pulled the plates from their store and has replaced the page for the product with a list of news articles about the side plates.   Hopefully, this page is referencing the company’s plan to fight the cease-and-desist order as it does appear that they have both appealed it and stated that the product will be returning. 

Image: Dbrand