Gibson Guitar has announced it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against the makers and sellers of the 'Rock Band' and 'Guitar Hero' games, the two rival video games that involve one of those 'pretend guitar thingys' which you pretend to play in sync with the musical instructions on screen.
Gibson claim that the video games and their pretend guitar thingys violate a 1999 patent that they own for technology that simulates a musical performance. The guitar company first raised patent concerns in relation to 'Guitar Hero' back in January in a letter to the game's current publishers Activision. The games company responded by applying to the US courts for a declaration confirming their product did not violate any Gibson patents.
Gibson initially seemed to be waiting to see how that court hearing would go, but then stepped up the anti early last week by putting various retailers on warning for selling the 'Guitar Hero' game based on their patent violation claim. On Friday they then announced they had filed a patent lawsuit against the makers of 'Guitar Hero's newer rival 'Rock Band', which include MTV, Electronic Arts and Harmonix, the latter the gaming developers who also originally conceived 'Guitar Hero'.
Harmonix immediately disputed Gibson's legal claim, telling reporters: "This lawsuit is completely without merit and we intend to defend it vigorously".