Gibson suing Guitar Hero/Rock Band Makers - What Arseholes!

It seems that a lot of company's these days are nothing but sue-happy. See something that they like, sue someone over it for no apparent reason. Think you have a patent for something similar to something someone else is making billions of dollars from, ah what the hell, sue them and see what kind of pay off you can get from them! One of the more recent suing events has caught my eye, and involves the video games Rock Band Hero / Guitar Hero being sued by Gibson.

Let's face it, most of these lawsuits are just stupid and uncalled for. Hell, you can sue your neighbour just because they wear a shirt you don't like, so when it comes to corporate greed, pretty much anything goes. This Gibson suit though has a lot of interesting things in it that have caught my attention, and also goes to show just how big of a douche bag Gibson really is. Their lawsuit is calling for every copy of the game to be pulled from store shelves, which in itself is ridiculous with something that popular!

A bit of history about the companies. Guitar Hero is a video game. Gibson makes stupendously overpriced electric guitars that some people think are nice, though a lot prefer the cheaper, better sounding Ibanez to. Most people can't afford a Gibson. Guitar Hero uses an electric guitar shaped computer controller that you have to push the buttons on in order of the screen, similar to DDR where the skill is just to push the buttons at the right times. The guitar is just a controller, nothing else, it isn't a real guitar and in no way, shape or form does it look or even operate like a real guitar.

Gibson was originally involved with the games for licensing reasons, as they allowed the game creators to use guitar models that looked like some of the stupendously overpriced guitars that they sell to very rich people. They signed an exclusive content deal for the Guitar Hero 3 games, which were available for the Playstation 2/3, Wii and Xbox 360. They made over 20 different guitars from their entire modern and classic ranges available, and added more than 80 'riffs' to the games that you could could play. Source article, with some really nice pics - http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2007/7/9-23

So, I hear you ask, why do they want to sue them? Well, here's the kicker. Activision, the company that produced the game decided not to renew their exclusive content deal with them. Rumours on the net are because they were being too greedy, which doesn't really surprise me. Other rumours also indicate that the game makers don't want to stay with just one company, they also want to explore other guitar makers and get some of their products known too. Difficult to say at this point which are true.

It was this event that prompted Gibson to sue Activision on the Guitar Hero game, then shortly afterwards, they also filed suit against the Rock Band game from Electronic Arts, also for patent infringement. They claim that both games violate the terms of their patent. For those nerdy folk out there, here is the patent link - http://www.google.com/patents?id=YAUZAAAAEBAJ - System and method for generating and controlling a simulated musical concert.

Before I get started on tearing the patent to pieces here, there are a few very interesting chronological issues with this patent. As with all these guitar/drum type games, they all began back in Japan, even today those guys are still nuts for these types of games. Way back in 1999, a company named Konami (they made some of the greatest arcade games EVER!) released an arcade machine named GuitarFreaks, which was very similar to the Guitar Hero game. The game didn't take off all that well, and was probably due to it only staying in Japan. Anyways, back to the dates. The Gibson patent was filed back on July 1998, just short of when the GuitarFreaks game was being released. Naturally, Konami own patent to the game and it's controlling method. In Japan. What looks to have happened, and the dates etc. speak for themselves, is that Gibson found out about the game being developed and tried to do something about it here in the US. After an extensive US patent search, Gibson patented the exact same idea here in the US, because at the time Konami never thought of bringing it here, had they patented it here at the same time, I wouldn't be writing this right now. So, in essence, they stole the idea from someone else and patented it as their own. Some more articles of reference will be at the end of this post. This is a perfect example of a patent troll at work.

Now, as we actually get to looking at the patent, their are a huge number of discrepancies which make the whole lawsuit ridiculous. Gibson have absolutely no leg to stand on whatsoever. In reading the patent, it becomes very apparent of the following:

1. A 3D, stereoscopic headset with stereo sound must be worn to play the game.
2. The 'stringed' guitar attached to the computer plays real music, there is no mention of anything regarding pushing of buttons or controller-like behaviour, it specifically indicates the instrument plays the music. Patent refers specifically to audio input/output signals. Think of it more like an electric guitar, and you plug the amp into your computer.
3. Headset must be worn by the player to experience a 'virtual concert experience'.

You need to remember that the Guitar Hero/RockBand controllers don't actually generate any sound, they simply activate a button and the computer generates the sound. It's going to be tough to Gibson to prove their audio input/output system is in violation when they have lot's of technical bullshit, including schematics, of something completely different. Even the diagrams show a stringed guitar!!

My guess is that Gibson are just getting money hungry seeing as the game is making many millions of dollars around the world and they want a piece of the pie. What really strikes me as funny, is that they have waited all these years to file the lawsuit, when they could have done this back in the late 90's when the games first started coming out. By law, after 3 years you aren't supposed to be able to file complaint, hehe =) It's just some corporate scumbag over at Gibson trying to milk their cash-cow in a pissy fit because their exclusive content deal wasn't renewed. Thats all. Petty.

Did I mention that Rock Band's official content is provided by Fender? Another kick in the bollocks for Gibson, i'm sure =) Many Gibson loving people have thought twice about the company over this, as they are making themselves out to be real A-holes, they should be working on releasing new compatible faceplates to support sales of the game even further, not trying to stop the game from selling! You'd think they would want to encourage sales for a product they officially endorsed even if for a short period of time! Not only should everyone boycott Gibson, they should also boycott their other company Epiphone. Please, post your comments!

Links:
Gibson's Patent On Google - http://www.google.com/patents?id=YAUZAAAAEBAJ

Other Good Articles Covering This:
Did Konami Inspire Gibson's Patent Suit? (Some pics of the GuitarFreaks arcade) - http://kotaku.com/368269/did-konami-inspire-gibsons-patent-suit
Activision/Gibson Content Deal (2007) - http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2007/7/9-23
Gibson Xploring Guitar Hero patent infringement - http://www.gamespot.com/news/6187653.html

Wiki Links:
Rock Band Wiki Page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Band_(video_game)