Gibson Claims Guitar Hero Was Their Idea, Activision Sues
Mar 12th, 2008 by Guitar MX Admin
| Gibson Guitars recently sent a letter to Activision, maker of the hugely popular Guitar Hero games, claiming that the Guitar Hero idea was originally theirs, and was patented in 1999. Here’s what Gibson had to say in the letter: |  |
Based on our preliminary analysis, the ‘Guitar Hero’ software (including any expansion packs) and the guitar controller provided by Activision being used as a musical instrument (packaged with the software or sold standalone) are covered by the … patent….Gibson requests that Activision obtain a license under Gibson’s … patent or halt sales of any version of the ‘Guitar Hero’ game software.
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The irony is, Activision purchased licensing from Gibson to use the Gibson trademarked designs in the game controllers, and by characters in the game. Gibson acknowledges in their letter that they knew of the Guitar Hero game for years, but decided recently that the game infringed on their patent.
Now that Gibson wants a larger piece of the pie, Activision has taken the defensive step of suing Gibson to have a court rule that Gibson’s claim is invalid. Activision’s general counsel said “We disagree with the applicability of their patent and would like a legal determination on this.” This is just more bad PR for Gibson. Hopefully Activision gets the ruling they are looking for. |
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You can read more about this story here.
Yeah, this could be VERY bad news for Gibson!
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
This is kind of classic. They waited so the game get big sales and after this they asked for a piece of the pie. Before getting sales and popularity, there was no use for it, right?
Gibson in another head-up-bum shocker!
Gibson USA, now that it has been a while since the PRS scandal, has decided to start up another lawsuit to justify the expenses incurred by their legal department. This time they plan to take on the company that has probably done the most to promote th…
[...] Gibson Claims Guitar Hero Was Their Idea, Activision Sues Wanting a larger piece of the Guitar Hero action, Gibson, who already had their name on the Guitar Hero controllers, suddenly remembered that they came up with the Guitar Hero Idea several years earlier. [...]
[...] may recall a lawsuit filed last year by Gibson Guitars against Activision, owners of the Guitar Hero game. Gibson’s lawsuit claimed that the video game infringed a [...]