Gibson lays lawsuit on GameStop, other major retailers

by James Ransom-Wiley on Mar 21st 2008 6:20PM

Gibson seems to be poking its straw into any hole it can find these days, trying to desperately suck up some of that gooey Guitar Hero money before it's all gone. On Monday, the guitar maker filed a federal lawsuit against major retailers that sell Guitar Hero games, including GameStop, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon, and Toys "R" Us, seeking to prohibit sales of the games. In a statement released Thursday, the company claimed it took "this action reluctantly, but is required to protect its intellectual property."

Though Gibson has yet to file suit against Guitar Hero owner Activision, the guitar company has made a legal claim alleging that the games (when played with the guitar controllers) violate Gibson's patent for a type of virtual music performance. Subsequently, Activision filed a preemptive lawsuit against Gibson last week, and then publicly dismissed Gibson's patent infringement claim. Most recently, Gibson targeted Guitar Hero creator and former developer Harmonix, its daddy's daddy Viacom and Rock Band co-publisher Electronic Arts for allegedly violating the same patent ... Yeah, our head's spinning too.

[Via Engadget]

Source

Tags: amazon, breakingnews, gamestop, gibson, guitar-hero, kmart, lawsuit, target, toys-r-us, wal-mart

Reader Comments (54)

Am I the only one who remembers the Welcome to West Feedback/Quest for Fame games from the mid-nineties that had a virtual guitar?

They should sue you if you have a dream and a gibson is in it. And it depends how many you see. If you walk into a guitar store they get to kill you with the amount of gibsons you see

Typical response from an aging, stiff-collared dinosaur company like Gibson. While other companies are riding a wave of success due to reorganization of management, excellent products and being in touch with the player, Gibson still uses litigation for profit techniques to raise revenue because their products don't do the talkin' much anymore. But oh, that robot guitar? Gotta get me one of those. I've been playing 25 and I'll be damned, still can't tune my guitar. (not) Gibson sucks ass.