Originally published in Law360, New York on October 15, 2012.

A California federal judge's decision to let Sony Corp. customers revise their putative data breach class action provides plaintiffs with a possible tool to get past the motion-to-dismiss stage, but they will need to prove an actual, present injury to ultimately succeed on any claims or win any substantial relief, attorneys said Monday.

In a ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia found that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services customers affected by a massive data breach had Article III standing to sue Sony for allegedly failing to protect their private information from hackers because they had “articulated sufficient particularized and concrete harm to sustain a finding of injury-in-fact” at this early stage of the proceedings.

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