Recently guitar manufacturer Gibson Guitar Corporation has filed suit against game company Activision. The reason being that apparently Gibson filed a patent for a musical performance simulation game 9 years ago. Well, its funny how Guitar Hero has already gone on through to its 4th released iteration, counting "Rocks the 80s", and they're just now getting upset about it. I guess they've seen how much success the Guitar Hero franchise has conjured up and now they want in on a piece of the action. Besides, there is a Gibson guitar controller packaged with the special edition of Guitar Hero III. But, I remember a while back Activision said that they were no longer interested in using the Gibson brand for their guitar peripherals in future installments. Looks like a case of stolen thunder and sour grapes to me. Activision was quick to respond saying they felt Gibson's claims were "disingenuous and lack any justification". Gibson responded by saying they had tried to settle the issue as soon as it was discovered. However, apparently "Activision chose to initiate litigation without notice to Gibson", forcing them to pursue enforcement of a patent they filed for years before the original Guitar Hero was launched. Hmmm... I wonder what Konami has to say about this issue? After all, Konami's GuitarFreaks was already released by the time Gibson's patent had been filed back in 2000. And since GuitarFreaks came out in 1999, I'm sure a patent had been filed by Konami years prior to this.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Activision sued by Gibson Guitar Corporation
Recently guitar manufacturer Gibson Guitar Corporation has filed suit against game company Activision. The reason being that apparently Gibson filed a patent for a musical performance simulation game 9 years ago. Well, its funny how Guitar Hero has already gone on through to its 4th released iteration, counting "Rocks the 80s", and they're just now getting upset about it. I guess they've seen how much success the Guitar Hero franchise has conjured up and now they want in on a piece of the action. Besides, there is a Gibson guitar controller packaged with the special edition of Guitar Hero III. But, I remember a while back Activision said that they were no longer interested in using the Gibson brand for their guitar peripherals in future installments. Looks like a case of stolen thunder and sour grapes to me. Activision was quick to respond saying they felt Gibson's claims were "disingenuous and lack any justification". Gibson responded by saying they had tried to settle the issue as soon as it was discovered. However, apparently "Activision chose to initiate litigation without notice to Gibson", forcing them to pursue enforcement of a patent they filed for years before the original Guitar Hero was launched. Hmmm... I wonder what Konami has to say about this issue? After all, Konami's GuitarFreaks was already released by the time Gibson's patent had been filed back in 2000. And since GuitarFreaks came out in 1999, I'm sure a patent had been filed by Konami years prior to this.
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