Filed under: Gaming

Alright, this is getting a little silly. First it was Gibson claiming that Rock Band and Guitar Hero violated a patent covering “simulating a musical performance,” and now Konami is suing Harmonix, Viacom, and MTV Game because Rock Band allegedly violates a similar set of patents covering “simulated musical instruments” and “musical rhythm-based matching games.” Filed in good ol’ Marshall, the suit seeks the big green in damages and an order preventing the sale of Rock Band’s instruments. Interestingly, Gamasutra noticed last year that the fine print on Activision’s Guitar Hero homepage says the game is covered by the Konami patents in question, so it appears that Activision’s managed to reach a licensing agreement with Konami — which, if true, doesn’t necessarily bode well for Harmonix and company. No one’s commenting yet, but we hear Harmonix’s lawyers are furiously punching in the old up-up-down-down trying to get this to go away.

Read - Wired article on the lawsuit
Read - Gamasutra article
Read - Konami’s complaint (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering simulated musical instruments (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical arcade machines (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical game machines (PDF)

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Filed under: Gaming

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gaming_news/Gibson_now_sues_Harmonix_for_Rock_Band’; We still think Gibson’s attempt to claim that Guitar Hero violates its patent on “simulating a musical performance with a musical instrument” is totally unfounded and ridiculous for a number of reasons (it involves a “3-D headset,” for one), but we can sort of see why the company is now suing Harmonix as well — they’re a Fender outfit, after all. The third in a series of petulant lawsuits filed by the notoriously litigious guitar maker over the patent claims Harmonix, Viacom, and Electronic Arts are all liable for Rock Band, but it’s not clear if Gibson is going after just the guitars or the drum kit as well, which is probably closer to actually counting as an instrument. Of course, the patent itself hasn’t changed since the last time we read it, and it’s obvious that Gibson’s going to have itself quite a challenge convincing the court that playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band involves musical instruments of any kind — after all, it’s just Simon, right?

Disclaimer: Nilay is a lawyer and a rock star, but he’s not your lawyer (or your monkey, man) and this is not legal advice or analysis.

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