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Fake guitar suits keep coming from Gibson

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

March 24, 2008, 11:03 AM

Guitar makers Gibson, who recently filed patent infringement suit against Activision for the Guitar Hero game series has taken the same suit to the makers of Rock Band, MTV Networks, Harmonix, and Electronic Arts.

The guitar maker whose brand was made famous by axe-slingers from Jimmy Page to B.B. King recently sued Activision for patent infringement, claiming that the Guitar Hero concept was property of the guitar company.

The patent Gibson holds and cited in the suit is from 1999, covering the system for a "virtual concert" where the user plays an instrument that triggers pre-recorded sections of music in time with a song. Due to Guitar Hero's similar nature, the suit demands a license be paid to Gibson for the idea. Activision reportedly countersued, saying that Gibson granted implied license by waiting over three years to sue the company.

Another suit was filed on Friday against the creators of Rock Band a similar music/performance simulation game produced by Electronic Arts and Viacom's MTV Networks. Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band work on a system developed by Harmonix, a gaming company specializing in controller schemes optimized for music games.

Patents held by Harmonix for Real-Time Music Creation System were filed three years prior to Gibson and appear more computer-oriented than the guitar company's.

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By fadeblack

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 11:46 PM

All the air belongs to me. Stop breathing or pay!

Score: 0

By Neoprimal

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 4:22 PM

....Patent reform....when?

Score: 0

By Faustus

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 2:49 PM

Instead of getting angry we should all just be thankful to gibson for inventing the guitar in the first place.... wait... thats not right.

Score: 0

By kholdstare

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 12:15 PM

sue everybody!!!! it's the american way

Score: 0

By dvferret

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 11:38 AM

This is absolutely pathetic.

Score: 0

By Scotch Moose

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 11:32 AM

Owning an idea is like trying to own a breath of air. Doesn't matter how good you are at holding your breath sooner or later someone else will breath that same air.

Even if it is a really good breath of air, it's of no use without all the others.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 11:32 AM

The patent Gibson holds and cited in the suit is from 1999, covering the system for a "virtual concert" where the user plays an instrument that triggers pre-recorded sections of music in time with a song

Wow.

Okay, so last time it was a string-based guitar...now it's just "an instrument"?

From the actual patent (and the last article posted:

"The system...wherein the musical instrument is a guitar, whereby variations in striking of strings on the guitar by the user produces changes in level of the audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance on the audio playback transducer."

No strings on these things.

Gibson=FAIL. The attorney's for the defendants need only point out the specificity here. If they had intended to apply this to other methods of input, they would not have been so specific in the application.

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 11:31 AM

Huh?!?!? Isn't DDR the first to use pre-recorded "virtual concert" and the game was released in 1998. So Gibson, stole the idea from DDR and patented in the USA, and sue everyone else?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 11:33 AM

AFAIK, DDR doesn't produce music based on your movements.

You failure to dance properly, or success at dancing well doesn't actually affect how the music is played, does it?

Score: 0

By M3wThr33

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 12:07 PM

But Beatmania, which predates EVERYTHING was a music generator. So it wins.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 12:15 PM

Well there ya go. Predating tech *and* a far top specific patent = Gibson's failure. :)

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Mar 24, 2008 - 12:02 PM

Surely UmJammer Lammy and PaRappa the Rapper count then?

You have to move to press the buttons on an ordinary controller and that does affect the music.

They even produced a special guitar controller for that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UmJammer_Lammy

Score: 0

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