Activision has recently received heavy flak from musical instrument manufacturer Gibson Guitar Corporation due to the patent violation lawsuit filed by the latter against the video game company.

If you've read our previous coverage on the issue, you'll know that the nature of the complaint was tied to Activision's supposed infringement of Gibson's patent for a guitar shaped controller used to play in time with notes on a TV screen. Sounds rather familiar doesn't it?

Activision was rather cool about the situation and gave its own statement regarding the matter:

Gibson’s lawsuit is a transparent end run around an impartial court that Activision asked on March 11 to rule on patent assertions that Gibson knows have no merit. Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong. We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers.

A licensing agreement was filed prior to the lawsuit regarding the replication of Gibson's guitar designs for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, PC, and PS2). However, Gibson retaliated by alleging that Activision violated one of its patents which governs "technology used to simulate a musical performance". Due to this, Activision filed its own lawsuit to counter Gibson's claims for damages.

Activision concluded its statement by saying that Gibson's claims are "disingenuous and lack any justification". It was also mentioned that Activision is no longer interested in pursuing any future marketing and support agreements with Gibson.

Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360), (Wii) ]
Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS3), (PC) ]