Gibson sues retailers over Guitar Hero retail

by Ashley Coomer - 2008/03/21 4:28am

Back in January, Gibson contacted Guitar Hero III publisher Activision, stating that the series infringes on a patent the musical instrument manager created in ’99 – ‘Technology for simulating a musical performance’. As you might have surmised, Gibson has bit Activision’s ass because Guitar Hero does just that. Gibson requested that Activision should “Obtain a license under [the patent] or halt sales of any Guitar Hero game software”.

Activision filed a suit in the US District Court of Central California asking the court to make Gibson’s patent invalid, thus preventing damages, but Gibson is having none of it. In a statement, it said ‘On Monday, March 17, Gibson Guitar Corp. brought a lawsuit against various retailers, which are selling Guitar Hero products that are infringing on one of Gibson Guitar’s US patents. Gibson 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 statement continued ‘Gibson has tried to settle this issue by negotiating directly with Activision as soon as the patent filed through one of Gibson’s divisions was discovered and validated by the outside counsel. Activision chose to initiate litigation without notice to Gibson. Now, Gibson must pursue enforcement of its patent which predates the launch of the Guitar Hero game by several years’.

Activision responded with a statement saying ‘Gibson’s lawsuit is a transparent end run around an impartial court that Activision asked on March 11 to rule on patent assertions that Gibson knows have no merit. 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 consumers’.