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Gibson: Activision's Guitar Hero violates patent

Posted Mar 12, 2008 at 1:41PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: Activision, Gibson, Harmonix, patent

It seems that everyone is hopping on the bandwagon in terms of sticking it to Activision. First, it was Harmonix with the royalty suit - now, it's Gibson Guitar Inc, claiming that the Guitar Hero franchise has infringed one of their patents. Activision has responded to this, of course, asking a US court to declare the claim invalid.

What patent is being violated, you ask? Gibson stated that the game violate a 1999 patent where players press buttons on a guitar-shaped controller in time with notes on a TV screen, to simulate a musical performance. Which is pretty much what Guitar Hero is, actually, now that we think about it. Coincidence, maybe? In any case, Gibson provided a copy of their patent, as well as requested that Activision either obtain a license from Gibson or halt the sale of the Guitar Hero titles.

To their credit, Activision's keeping cool about the entire deal. Besides asking that the claims be thrown out of court, they noted that Gibson is a good partner and that they have a great deal of respect for the guitar-making company. They also pointed out that by waiting for three years to raise its claim, Gibson had granted an implied license for any technology. If they've filed earlier, then it wouldn't have been an issue.

Well, here's hoping that this little legal hub-bub gets tied up soon. Updates as we get them.

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I hate corporate america.....so no one is buying gibson guitars and they need some money so they decide to sue over a ridiculous patent on a product that they had/have no intent on creating....

Ya, like Gibson could ever create and market a standalone machine/game to mimic GH....I suppose they could no problem, but 10 people would buy it and they would lose a ridiculous amount of money....so, lets sue !!!

# Yep — Keith K 2008-03-12 15:57

I'd buy a Gibson.. if they werent like $5000 and up.

Money grubbing hicks...

# I don't buy a Gibson... — lavino 2008-03-12 17:12

not only because their stuffs are over priced (well... Fender on the other hand is not that diff either). Is higher price always better? As a guitar player for 16+ years I can say not always (and this applies to Claisscal guitar too). Your own skills make the real difference. I have seen someone played wonderfully on a so called piece of crap Squier Hello Kitty Strat copy and it makes no diff from a MIA Hwy-1.

However, if you did buy a few of the older Gibson or Fender and keep them in all original parts it does worth something. Then it became a piece of decoration lost the use as a guitar.

# GuitarFreaks anyone? — extra2000 2008-03-12 18:38

I used to play it... how come Gibson never went for that lawsuit with Konami?

# >> — Mentality 2008-03-13 08:34

This makes me laugh so hard,

Gibson "Hey of course you can use our guitar design for this quite simply amazing game"

Activision "Gee Thanks"

From the time on things where going great...

Gibson "SH*T we have a patent for a game quite similar to Activisions, we should sue them despite the fact we have let them use our guitar in the game and have therfore already gave them permission to release the game that we wanted to create years and years ago but never got round to doing, and the fact that we are great partners, and despite the fact that we would never have a shot at releasing our version anyway because we suck and don't have a foot hold in the gaming market"

Activision "ZOMG, WTF **Confused**"

# >> — Mentality 2008-03-13 08:37

I don't know maybe Activistion should have used the SEARCH BUTTON on the patent sites lol, maybe Gibson should have rememberd earlier, "OH YEAH, WE DESIGNED THIS GAME" before jumping in to fully support them by letting them use the Gibson guitar designs, what a bunch of idiots.

# >> — dragonracer900 2008-03-13 08:51

I agree with Mentality,

Its stupid for gibson to wait 3 years to say anything. They just wanted to see how good guitar hero would sell before saying anything.

# Guitar freaks is older than the pattent. — JamesJAB 2008-03-13 12:56

There are two answers for that one.

1: Konami never released Guitar Freaks in North America.

2: The Japan arcade version of Guitar Freaks came out in February 1999.

So most likely someone from Gibson probably saw Guitar Freaks in Japan, then came home and wrote up a quick pattent for the concept.

# Seems normal for corprate america. — JamesJAB 2008-03-13 13:02

Does this realy suprise anyone?

Look how long Imersion waited before seuing Microsoft and Sony? Hmm lets see... the Dualshock design had been out for almost 5 years before the lawsuit.

Nice and simple realy. see product come out, determine that it broke your pattent, wait years for owed royalties to stack up, then and only then Sue their butts off!

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Gibson: Activision's Guitar Hero violates patent

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