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Konami Sues Harmonix, Viacom, and MTV Over Rock Band

by Nilay Patel on July 13, 2008 at 10:17 AM


Alright, this is getting a little silly. First it was Gibson claiming that Rock Band and Guitar Hero violated a patent covering "simulating a musical performance," and now Konami is suing Harmonix, Viacom, and MTV Game because Rock Band allegedly violates a similar set of patents covering "simulated musical instruments" and "musical rhythm-based matching games."

Filed in good ol' Marshall, the suit seeks the big green in damages and an order preventing the sale of Rock Band's instruments. Interestingly, Gamasutra noticed last year that the fine print on Activision's Guitar Hero homepage says the game is covered by the Konami patents in question, so it appears that Activision's managed to reach a licensing agreement with Konami -- which, if true, doesn't necessarily bode well for Harmonix and company. No one's commenting yet, but we hear Harmonix's lawyers are furiously punching in the old up-up-down-down trying to get this to go away.

Read - Wired article on the lawsuit
Read - Gamasutra article
Read - Konami's complaint (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering simulated musical instruments (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical arcade machines (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical game machines (PDF)

Tags: harmonix, konami, lawsuit, legal, mtv, mtv networks, MtvNetworks, rock band, RockBand, viacom

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