Gibson Guitar Inc. filed a lawsuit on Monday against Activision Inc., the maker of video game "Guitar Hero," and the game's retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target for patent infringement.
Gibson disclosed in a statement that it sued the retailers "to protect its intellectual property and will continue to do so against any other person in accordance with the law and its rights."
Gibson says that Activision Inc. has violated its patent, which covers technology meant to simulate a musical performance, with the game play of "Guitar Hero," where users hit buttons on an electronic guitar-shaped controller while musical "notes" displayed on the game screen.
Activision Inc. has filed a counterlawsuit against Gibson to have the court declare Gibson's patent invalid.
The guitars for the first “Guitar Hero” games were modeled from Gibson SGs, the Xbox 360 version of “Guitar Hero II” included a replica Gibson X-Plorer, and the controller for “Guitar Hero III” is based on Gibson Les Paul.
In addition to Wal-Mart and Target, Gibson is suing Toys “R” Us, GameStop, Amazon.com and Kmart, as well as Harmonix, the former developers of the games, and MTV Networks and Electornic Arts, the publisher and distributor.
Harmonix no longer develops "Guitar Hero"; instead, they developed rival "Rock Band" for Nintendo Wii.
The latest version of "Guitar Hero", "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" was released on Oct. 28, 2007.
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