Oyster Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Activision wants a court to uphold its rights to the technology behind its wildly popular video game, Guitar Hero. The company on Tuesday filed papers in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles asking a judge to dismiss claims from Gibson, the legendary guitar maker, that the video game violates patents dating back to 1999. Guitar Hero was released less than three years ago. Players use a control that is shaped like a Gibson guitar to select scrolling musical notes and "play" along with music tracks. The Gibson look-alikes, including Les Paul, SG, and Kramer models, are allowed under an undisclosed license agreement between the two companies. Gibson reportedly sent a letter to Activision earlier this year saying that the control device violates patents Gibson holds for simulating a concert using speakers and a headset. The company claimed that Activision should obtain licenses for the software and controllers, although Activision reportedly has a license on the Les Paul trademark. Activision argues that Gibson has implied consent to use the technology by waiting three years to dispute the video game maker's rights to the technology. By 2007, the game's second version for PlayStation 2 ranked fourth among the best-selling video games in the United States, according to the NDP Group. Consumers bought 2.72 million units of "Guitar Hero II: Legends of Rock" for the PS2 and total sales for Guitar Hero games surpassed $820 million in 2007. That was a record for a single franchise in one year, according to NDP. Guitar Hero exceeded $1 billion in North American sales in January, according to Activision. A month earlier, the game went mobile, thanks to a deal with Verizon (NYSE: VZ). Vivendi SA plans to acquire 68% of Activision and merge its game group with the company in a deal worth nearly $19 billion. - http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206903582 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingarmadillo Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Guess Gibson doesn't have the cajones to go after the Chinese counterfeiters so they're going to take it out on the gamers instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLiveSoundGuy Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 How do you know they don't? Maybe they do, but you don't know it since you are not in their legal department. Maybe we only hear about the Activision lawsuit, because Activision is a large corporation, and the chinese copy guitar vendor is not national news. If there was one large Chinese counterfeiter like say Alvarez, or Ibanez, I have no doubt we would hear about it. Most likely the fakes are coming from several smaller sources. I'm just sayin' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibson CS Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 I guess Gibson sees how popular the game has become. The dollar signs are more then they can take. Again, the all mighty dollar. Im not too bad at the game. I get dizzy though after a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLiveSoundGuy Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 The dollar signs are more then they can take. Again' date=' the all mighty dollar.[/quote'] Sadly, it is what drives each and everyone of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.