Follow up story --
Gibson Guitar hits Wal-Mart, Target, others for selling Guitar Hero games
Earlier this month, Gibson accused Activision of its Guitar Hero franchise violating several of the real-guitar makers’ patents. Activision responded by asking a federal judge to declare that the Guitar Hero does not owe anything to Gibson’s patents.
U.S. Patent number 5990405 awarded to Gibson in 1999 reads,
“A musician can simulate participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3D display that includes stereo speakers. Audio and video portions of a musical concert are pre-recorded, along with a separate sound track corresponding to the musical instrument played by the musician.”
Gibson isn’t finished with just Guitar Hero, however, as it has also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against those behind Rock Band – Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts – over the very same patent thrown up against Guitar Hero.
“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 an intent to enter into negotiations for a patent license agreement,” read a Gibson press statement. “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.”
Besides going after the makers of the music-rhythm games, Gibson is also launching an offensive against retailers selling such products. Last week, Gibson brought a lawsuit against Wal-Mart, Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Amazon.com, GameStop and Toys “R” Us for their sale of Guitar Hero games.
“Gibson Guitar took this action reluctantly, but is required to protect its intellectual property and will continue to do so against any other person in accordance with the law and its rights,”the guitar maker said in another statement.
Activision responded in a press release to Gibson’s attack on retailers:
“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.
“As Activision noted in its filing, Gibson waited three years to make its patent allegations, and only did so after it became clear that Activision was not interested in renewing its marketing and support agreement with Gibson. Activision continues to believe that Gibson's claims are disingenuous and lack any justification.”
Source: DailyTech