NASHVILLE, Tenn. --(Business Wire)-- Mar. 21, 2008 On March 20, 2008, Gibson Guitar Corp. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Harmonix, MTV Networks (a division of Viacom) and Electronic Arts (EA Games) in the Federal District Court in Tennessee. This new lawsuit relates to the same U.S. Patent involved in the lawsuit filed by Gibson Guitar recently against various retailers in the same court. Gibson Guitar had made good faith efforts to enter into a patent license agreement with the defendants in this case. The defendants have not responded in a timely manner with an intent to enter into negotiations for a patent license agreement. Gibson Guitar had no alternative but to bring the suit, and it will continue to protect its intellectual property rights against any and all infringing persons.
Gibson is known worldwide for producing classic models in every major style of fretted instrument, including acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, and banjos. Gibson's HD.6X-PRO Digital Guitar and the Gibson Robot Guitar represent the biggest advances in electric guitar design in over 70 years. Founded in 1894 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and headquartered in Nashville since 1984, Gibson Guitar Corp.'s family of brands now includes Epiphone, Dobro, Maestro, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Echoplex, Electar, Flatiron, Gibson Baldwin Music Education, Slingerland, Valley Arts, Maestro, Oberheim, Sunshine Piano, Take Anywhere Technology, Baldwin, J&C Fischer, Chickering, Hamilton, and Wurlitzer. Visit Gibson's website at http://www.gibson.com.
Steve's Notes
Perhaps I might be missing something very obvious here but the guitars used in Guitar Hero are not real guitars. They are just a video game controller made to look like a guitar. Playing guitar Hero will in no way help you learn how to play a real guitar.
Since when does a couple of colored buttons and a strum area a guitar make? Is Gibson trying to say that the thousand dollar guitars they make are somehow in danger because a plastic video game controller was made to look like them for use in a game where players do nothing more than play an over-glamorized version of air guitar to impress their friends?
Give me a break Gibson. I know you have some patents on guitars but the only Guitar in Guitar Hero is in the name. The controller is not even a close facsimile of how a guitar works.