Patent Law

The following is excerpted from an article written today, March 13, 2008, by Evelyn Rusli and available at Forbes.com:

The fathers of Guitar Hero, the brothers Kai and Charles Huang, can't estimate how many hours they've spent strumming the game's mini Les Paul guitars. They?re not alone in their fascination with the game: more than 15 million units have been sold.

Last year, in particular, was a blowout--"Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" was the best-selling game of 2007, with 5.7 million units sold. A cell-phone version was also recently launched.

However, success has brought with it familiar challenges: imitation, competition and a falling out with partners.

One very real threat is "Rock Band," a game that allows multiple users to play various instruments and sing in a virtual band. "Rock Band" is produced by Harmonix, the game developer team that worked with the Huang brothers' company, RedOctane, to develop Guitar Hero.

(In a squall of acquisitions, RedOctane was purchased by Activision and Harmonix was purchased by MTV, which has partnered with Electronic Arts to distribute the game. Although RedOctane had the rights to the Guitar Hero franchise, Harmonix had the technical resources to create a similar platform.)

Activision's relationship with guitar-maker Gibson has turned acrimonious. RedOctane and Gibson had worked together since 2005 on instruments patterned after Gibson's famous guitars. But in January, Gibson sent a letter to Activision claiming that it had infringed on a 1999 Gibson patent for technology related to virtual music performance, and asked it to purchase a license from the guitar maker or cease selling the game. Activision cried foul, firing back with a lawsuit Tuesday in which it alleges that Gibson is making a false claim to squeeze more cash out of Guitar Hero.

Read the full article here.