Activision Sues Gibson In Response To Claims That 'Guitar Hero' Violates Patent
from the it's-all-fun-and-games-until-someone-digs-up-a-patent dept
And now bogus patent threats are finding their way into the video game world, as Activision has filed for a declaratory judgment that it doesn't infringe on a patent owned by Gibson, the well-known guitar company. It appears that Gibson owns a patent on "generating and controlling a simulated musical concert." Reading through the patent, it appears to be quite different than Activision's game. First off, the patent seems to clearly indicate that the instrument in question is a guitar, not the faux guitar used in "Guitar Hero." Also, the patent really does seem to be about participating in a virtual concert by adding the guitar part, rather than about pushing buttons in a game. Finally, the patent also includes the small detail that the participating in the virtual concert also involves a "head-mounted 3D display." I'm not aware of too many people playing "Guitar Hero" with one of those. Either way, Gibson approached Activision about licensing the patent, and rather than finding itself involved in a patent lawsuit in East Texas, Activision took charge and filed a suit against Gibson proactively, looking for a declaratory judgment that "Guitar Hero" does not violate the patent in question. In the meantime, if Gibson is really so concerned, why not do a deal with Activision to get them to offer replicas of Gibson's classic guitars as an upsell offering for the game's fans?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: guitar hero, patents, virtual guitar
Companies: activision, gibson
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I heard air-guitar competitions are quite funny.
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Re:
Very few people that are good at guitar hero think they can play real guitar. In fact if you're good at guitar go play guitar hero, they are worlds apart, it looks simple to play since it's only a few buttons and a switch that need to be pressed...but it's not as easy as it looks when you try it on the higher difficulties.
The two take different types of skills,guitar takes hand eye coordination and practice to be able to bend your hand to reach the right notes.
Guitar hero takes hand eye coordination and reflexes.
You bash the game but either you have never tried playing it or you did and you were terrible at it so obviously it sucks and is stupid.
I'm horrible at both guitar hero and guitar and I recognize the difficulty in both and the fact that I don't have the time to learn to do either of them well.
As for the story, I think it's a good move on activisions part.
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Snobs = Suck
Here's a news flash, Sparky: a LOT of musicians, REAL musicians, play and love the GH/RB games. They understand the differences between "real" and "pretend" and are cool with it. Oddly, some excellent real musicians are totally mediocre at these games because they're used to playing ahead or behind of the beat and the games require precise adherence to the grid.
I'm a songwriter-singer-guitarist who can sing and play some rather complicated parts at the same time and I'm toast at anything above Medium difficulty while kids with no musical training can clobber the games on Expert and clog YouTube with the proof.
I wonder what, ahem, shortcomings these haters are attempting to compensate for? Granted, I've also encountered musicians who think GH is the most retarded thing ever, but they're unhappy losers who have bitterness issues beyond some video game's influence.
The bottom line is that if people are having fun, what's your problem, Francis? It's interesting to see starter guitar kits being stocked at Beast Buy and Target? Could it be that some of the 14 million buyers of Guitar Hero games have decided to give the real thing a shot?
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Suing Out Of Pique?
So fast-forward to the present and Activision come up with something slightly similar, albeit simplified to the point where it's DDR with fewer fitness benefits [Full Disclosure: I don't have a PlayStation and can only go by the reviews here], and it's rather more successful thanks to developments in consumer electronics. Might someone on Activision's design team have played this game, or at least known of it, and found themselves wondering if it could be made to work on a modern system? I'd say it's an odds-on bet.
So Activision shakes the dust off an old idea that didn't work, fixes a great deal of what was wrong with it and makes some money out of it. And now I can only assume that someone found the patent certificate whilst clearing out the obsolete archives and thought, "Hey! We thought of something a bit like this fifteen years ago and it bombed, but now Activision are doing something similar and raking it in! Foul! We deserve a percentage!"
Now, I could kind of see where Gibson were coming from if this was just about the replica-guitar controller; the Guitar Hero one doesn't look like it uses very similar operating principles to what I saw on TV all those years ago, let alone the Gibson patent, but my imagination just about stretches to Activision being just slightly over the threshold for a technical violation. But "Generating and controlling a simulated musical concert" is a hell of a broad concept to patent; take that out of context and you could use Kraftwerk, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre for prior art! I'm not impressed by the way Gibson went about this either; threatening to take someone to court unless they pay up sounds rather a lot like blackmail or demanding money with menaces to me, and if Gibson were so sure of themselves then they should have requested a declaratory judgement for themselves.
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Activision vs. Gibson
I'm hoping that this foolishness settles down at some point, because it is such a colossal waste of time and resource, not to mention the hard feelings generated.
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Re: Activision vs. Gibson
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Gibson and Activision
I also now have no respect for Gibson what so ever.
I do not really ever plan to try to learn to play a real guitar. Would take too much time the way I see it.
But, if I did, I can guarentee you it would never ever be a Gibson now.
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Vague
First, the patent specifies a 3-d head-worn immersive video & audio device. As of yet, no version of GH has utilized such a device.
Second, Activision's product does not include any video or audio device, it utilizes existing products by other companies.
Third, the Gibson patent specifies a guitar. Activision's product is shaped remotely like a guitar, but is in actuality a game controller. It has buttons, no strings or pickups. No one would ever mistake a GH controller for a guitar.
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Re:
A patent is NOT a monopoly, just a right to exclude.
And USPTO stopped issuing friovolous patents a few years ago.
Try to get frivolous patent today. Tough luck.
And you are NOT a patent attorney, just a techdirt punk
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Re: Re:
Linked List Patent
Issued April 11, 2006.
The concept's only been around for over 50 years.
Reality: 1, angry dude: 0
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A GOOD REASON TO BUY A FENDER
I don't get it--- So they decide to pay Activision so that they use ONLY Gibson guitars in the game, model their controllers after gibson bodies, and have all sorts of Gibson guitars in the game's 'store.'
Then they decide that they need to try to extort money out of Activision by offering to "license the technology" (read: threaten to sue them and force a settlement)?
Seems like they had a pretty sweetheart deal going for themselves, a lot of positive publicity and public exposure - why risk it? They aren't in any financial duress- musical instrument sales are quite strong.
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Re: A GOOD REASON TO BUY A FENDER
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Gibson's Patent Claims
So, looking at the independent claims...
Claim #1 requires a musical instrument with an audio output signal. The Guitar Hero controller does not do that, so that one's out.
Claim #13 is broad enough that it could almost cover Guitar Hero, except the way it's written, it requires prerecorded video of a musical performance, and I don't think you could consider the GH game video to be prerecorded.
Claim #21 is really specific about a guitar, pre-recorded concert video, etc., so that's out. #25 and #28 also require pre-recorded concert video.
So on that basis, I don't think Gibson has a case.
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Re: advertising deal with Activision
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Another lawsuit
http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/007413.php
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