It’s official. Gibson Guitar Corporation is bringing down the hammer on Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts citing patent infringement on their top selling game, Rock Band. If that’s not enough the legendary guitar company is also suing retailers like Wal-Mart, Amazon and Kmart and many more for patent infringement on Guitar Hero. That’s right people, a guitar company is suing the makers of a videogame that uses a fake guitar? If this puzzling turn of events confuses you here’s the breakdown.
Gibson claims to have a patent for a device used to simulate a concert performance that has a musical instrument (fake guitar or real?) and 3D visuals supplied by a head-mounted 3D display with stereo speakers. Called the “405 patent” it apparently is way too close to what Rock Band or Guitar Hero does for Gibson to feel okay about it. Keep in mind this patent was filed 10 years ago, and clearly does not sound like a videogame where you get achievement points and jam with your friends.
Now before this happened, Activision who makes Guitar Hero, sued Gibson trying to get them to say that their game in no way violates the aforementioned patent. Interesting isn’t it?
Gibson claims to have a patent for a device used to simulate a concert performance that has a musical instrument (fake guitar or real?) and 3D visuals supplied by a head-mounted 3D display with stereo speakers. Called the “405 patent” it apparently is way too close to what Rock Band or Guitar Hero does for Gibson to feel okay about it. Keep in mind this patent was filed 10 years ago, and clearly does not sound like a videogame where you get achievement points and jam with your friends.
Now before this happened, Activision who makes Guitar Hero, sued Gibson trying to get them to say that their game in no way violates the aforementioned patent. Interesting isn’t it?
Gibson says they approached Harmoinx and EA about a licensed patent agreement but apparently they didn’t respond (maybe they were too busy rockin’ out?). As a result Gibson felt compelled to take action last week leading to this: (official statement from Gibson’s PR Department)
On March 20, 2008, Gibson Guitar Corp. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Harmonix, MTV Networks (a division of Viacom) and Electronic Arts (EA Games) in the Federal District Court in Tennessee. This new lawsuit relates to the same U.S. Patent involved in the lawsuit filed by Gibson Guitar recently against various retailers in the same court. Gibson Guitar had made good faith efforts to enter into a patent license agreement with the defendants in this case. The defendants have not responded in a timely manner with intent to enter into negotiations for a patent license agreement. Gibson Guitar had no alternative but to bring the suit and it will continue to protect its intellectual property rights against any and all infringing persons.
Infringing persons? So impersonal.
At this point no cash has been mentioned but you can see the potential cash value for these games which have consistently ranked in the top 10 in sales since the release of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band last year. Is this a sour grapes issue or does Gibson really have a valid case? One has to wonder if the games weren’t successful would this even be a case?
On March 20, 2008, Gibson Guitar Corp. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Harmonix, MTV Networks (a division of Viacom) and Electronic Arts (EA Games) in the Federal District Court in Tennessee. This new lawsuit relates to the same U.S. Patent involved in the lawsuit filed by Gibson Guitar recently against various retailers in the same court. Gibson Guitar had made good faith efforts to enter into a patent license agreement with the defendants in this case. The defendants have not responded in a timely manner with intent to enter into negotiations for a patent license agreement. Gibson Guitar had no alternative but to bring the suit and it will continue to protect its intellectual property rights against any and all infringing persons.
Infringing persons? So impersonal.
At this point no cash has been mentioned but you can see the potential cash value for these games which have consistently ranked in the top 10 in sales since the release of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band last year. Is this a sour grapes issue or does Gibson really have a valid case? One has to wonder if the games weren’t successful would this even be a case?
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