The lawsuit is actually because the version used in the game was supposed to be a cover version, but they're complaining that the cover version is "too accurate".

Source: Your story ;)

...I bet I'm not the only one who thought "Mel" before "guitar maker"...

This should be thrown out - its a blatant 'trying to make money from someone else's great idea'

words just defeat me - patents are there to protect real ideas, not to make random extra income.

Paris - cos she hasnt had an idea of her own.

can you patent 'virtual reality and music'? another bollocks USA patent pushed through then i guess!

The rule should be if you have a patent and wish to sue someone who infringes it then you need to have a product of your own out there.

That stops patent trolls patenting every idea under the sun that they can think of.

Gibson will just ruin their image, they're just cashing in on the popularity of this game, something that will actually help them in the long run by introducing people to guitar music and possibly getting them to take up real guitars.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/gibson_screws_musician_out_of_10000_worth_of_equipment.html

The penguin, because I finally got compiz working on my x1950...Go me.

If you have to explain your icon choice, then you've chosen the wrong icon. What is it with Paris icon lovers?

You haven't thought about this very hard have you?

What constitutes having a "product of your own out there." - selling a single product? Possibly to... i dunno.. the companies head of R&D?

Wouldn't really stop anyone would it?

"Gibson will just ruin their image" - yeah - because 99.9% of population actually care!!

"The rule should be if you have a patent and wish to sue someone who infringes it then you need to have a product of your own out there."

Not at all.

However, since software is already covered by copyright, allowing a bit of software to be patented is a boneheaded idea worthy of Bloody Stupid Johnson.

The purpose of patents is to *encourage* innovation. Software patents, however, *stifle* innovation, since even if a programmer discovers a completely novel way to achieve the same result, the *result* of the software is essentially what is patented, and therefor a new and innovative method of reaching that end is *still* subject to patent trolling.

" I bet I'm not the only one who thought "Mel" "

Oooh, I bet you are. The rest of us were keeping our Geek cred up by thinking "William".

so they licensed their instrument shapes to Activision, and now they are suing because of some patent they claimed they had. Perhaps it is because they have no luck with their digital instrument range, and that they have run out of ideas hence them suing PRS a few years ago

its called being funny, sarcastic and ironic - you might want to try it sometime....

(although it might not be strictly ironic - just thought i would mention it, cos you might be a grammer nazi as well...)

paris - just for you ^^

> Guitar Hero was first released in 2005. Activision claims

> that by waiting so long before voicing a complaint, Gibson

> tacitly gave the publisher a licence for its technology.

I imagine this is assuming that the company had access to the codes?

As for such things being patentable: I gather there is no such thing outside the USA. And even there it only got out of hand because a patent trolling attorney is the son of a local judge in some god-forsaken town in Texas.

Gotta be a John Travolta film in that scenario. Or maybe Al Pacino?

Title: The Man From the Eastern District of Texas.

Tit II: The Hangin Patent Judge.

Oh my GOD..

I'd better stop playing my air guitar.. they might have patented that too. <Gulp>

Nope.

So why hasn't Konami (Bemani) been sued over Guitar Freaks? That came out years ago on foreign soil alongside all the other beat-related games (that are now being copied...)

I was thinking Steve.

I'm off to re-interleve my ST225's thanks to spinrite.