Konami is suing RockBand

Jul. 11 2:50 PM by Nikole

In more legal news, Konmai is suing Harmonix, MTV Networks and their parent company Viacom over, you guessed it, patent violations. Konami's patents that were filled in 2002 and 2003 dealt with simulated musical instruments and a musical rhythm game. The makers of RockBand are being asked to not only pay up but also to stop production of their instrument controllers.



Back in 1999 Konami released GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, both of which helped dawn in the rhythm games we have today. Later this year Konami is set to release their own music game Rock Revolution.

No word yet on whether or not Activision and Sony, the makers of Guitar Hero and Singstar respectively, will also be seeing a lawsuit.

Source

Comments

Its scary to be a company these days, you can get sued by anything, this must be the year of the lawsuits,

 

The makers of RockBand are being asked to not only pay up but also to stop production of their instrument controllers.

Man, that's pretty harsh. Scarecrow is right, there have certainly been quite a few lawsuits this year.

 

I suppose they're only doing this to deter the competition now that they're going to have another, similar music game. That's the only explanation I see, unless they're just now noticing this, which seems very unlikely. I assume they'll go after Activison and Sony as well, I'm interested in seeing how this unfolds. Great article Nikole!

 

well lets be honest these guys made these types of games long time before it came to america. Music games have been around forever.

 

good god...so many patent-related lawsuits

 

konami shoulda called this out when rock band was released...i hope they lose this...srsly konami hasnt been doin anything noteworthy lately except metal gear solid 4

205562,206841
 

i agree, why do these lawsuits not show up till months sometimes even years after a product is released?

205562,206841
 

I remember Konami's drum game...so what, no company can do anything similar ever? I agree with stevn7, they should have at least called it when Rock Band was released. But since they're suing Rock Band.. they kind of also have to sue Activision (the new Guitar Hero has drums and stuff too right?)

 

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