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Activision Asks Court to Invalidate Gibson’s Guitar Hero Patent Claims

Text of Activision Complaint Seeking Declaratory Relief (March 11, 2008)
Text of Patent No. 5,990,405 (November 23, 1999)

Activision has a long-standing license to use guitar-maker Gibson’s trademarks in its Guitar Hero video game franchise.

Gibson owns a hitherto unknown and unenforced patent ‘405 (A System and method for generating and controlling a simulated musical concert experience) and claimed in a letter sent to Activision in January, that the Guitar Hero franchise, expansion packs and controllers infringe this patent. In the letter Gibson sought royalty payments from Activision:

Gibson requests that Activision obtain a license under Gibson’s … patent or halt sales of any version of the Guitar Hero game software.

In response, Activision has filed a preemptive lawsuit in the District Court for Central California asking the court, among other things, to invalidate Gibson’s patent claims and to bar it from seeking damages.

The abstract of Gibson’s patent no. 5,990,405 reads as follows:

A musician can simulate participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3D display that includes stereo speakers. Audio and video portions of a musical concert are pre-recorded, along with a separate sound track corresponding to the musical instrument played by the musician. Playback of the instrument sound track is controlled by signals generated in the musical instrument and transmitted to a system interface box connected to the audio-video play back device, an audio mixer, and the head-mounted display. An external bypass switch allows the musician to suppress the instrument sound track so that the sounds created by actual playing of the musical instrument are heard along with the pre-recorded audio and video portions.

Sources: Gamasutra | Next Generation 1 | Next Generation 2 | GameSpot | InformationWeek | engadget | Joystiq | MacWorld | Wall Street Journal | CNet | Yahoo! News (Reuters)

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Harmonix Brings $14.5M Royalty Suit Against Activision – Sort-of

Harmonix is the developer of the first two wildly successful Guitar Hero video games – originally published by RedOctane. In June 2006 Activision purchased the publishing rights to the franchise from RedOctane and Harmonix, which was subsequently purchased by MTV, went its own way and developed Guitar Hero. Activision-owned Neversoft has since taken-up the development of Guitar Hero sequels.

Harmonix claims that under its original agreement with RedOctane (subsequently assigned to Activision), it is entitled to a higher rate of royalties, amounting to $14.5 million, for the use of its intellectual property in Guitar Hero sequels. Harmonix claims that Activision has paid royalties based only on a prior lower rate.

Viacom (the parent of MTV and Harmonix) has reportedly withdrawn the suit for now. The companies have agreed to continue discussions outside of court.

Dale’s Comment: I could not find the text of the claim online. If I do, I will attach it to this post.

Sources: Variety | Gamasutra | GameSpot | Wired Blogs | CutScene | ars technica | GameSpot | Spong | Kotaku | Game Informer | gameindustry.biz

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Mid-Way Sued over Psi-Ops

Midway Games is being sued by William L. Crawford III, a Los Angeles County screenwriter, over its Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy sci-fi stealth-action game. Crawford claims the premise, plot and characters were stolen from a screenplay he wrote in 1998 – also called Psi-Ops.

Crawford claims that Midway should have known about his screenplay and its premise because:

  • he had set up websites with concept art;
  • he attended the 2001 E3 to promote it.
  • his company, Mindshadow Entertainment, had received media coverage for a possible  Psi-Ops movie project.
  • he had registered “Psi-Ops” with the U.S. Copyright Office six years prior to Midway’s registration.

Crawford seeks an accounting and share of revenue made from “Psi-Ops” sales in an amount no less than $1.5 million.

Dale’s Comment: On a personal note, immediately following its release I purchased this game for the original Xbox. It was unplayable. Like several games of its era, it made me nausious within five minutes of firing it up. Too bad. It looked like a fun game.

Sources: GameSpot | gameindustry.biz | SoftPedia | Yahoo! Games | Kotaku | IGN | 1Up.com

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RollerCoaster Tycoon Case to Proceed to U.K. High Court

Atari was sued by RollerCoaster Tycoon developer Chris Sawyer in November 2005 alleging unpaid royalties.

Atari counterclaimed Sawyer alleging he induced game developer Frontier to breach its contract with Atari in creating a demo based on the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise.

Apparently the UK’s law on inducement to breach is in flux and the outcome of Atari’s counterclaim is contingent on two cases pending before the House of Lords. Nonetheless Judge Lord Justice Chadwick is permitting the RollerCoaster Tycoon case to proceed to trial, but subject to the outcome of the other two cases.

Sources: GameIndustry.biz

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WWE Sues THQ – Claims Unauthorized Sublicensing

The WWE filed a lawsuit against THQ on October 12th claiming games using the WWE trademark were improperly sold in Japan and Asia. The WWE is seeking a declaration that it has the right to terminate its license agreement with THQ.

WWE claims that THQ sublicensed out rights to the game that they were not granted the right to sublicense. Indeed, WWE claims that the license explicitly precludes sublicensing without written consent from the WWE which such consent was not sought nor received.

WWE claims that THQ sublicensed rights to Yukes (partly owned by THQ) and that Yukes paid royalties directly to THQ that should have been paid to WWE.

THQ, for its part, says that WWE has been aware aware of and consented to the manner of distribution it uses in Japan.

Sources: Gamasutra | Pro-G | GameSpot 1 | *GameSpot 2 | Gamers.com | XBoxic | THQ Press Release

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Tesseraction Games Claims Summary Judgement Victory Against GMX Media

Text of September 23, 2003 Complaint
The lawsuit alleged that GMX Media failed to produce timely and accurate sales and royalty accounts, failed to pay royalties from sales and interest on delayed royalties, distributed the title in countries outside of those defined in the agreement, and distributed the title in packaging that was not approved by Tesseraction, contained altered text and omitted vital game support information.

Source: GameIndustry.biz

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Developers Threaten Digital Jesters with Legal Action

The UK Game publisher Digital Jesters has been accused by game developers of breaking contracts, failing to account for royalties, failing to pay game studios and otherwise breaching their contracts.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

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Peter Jackson Sues New Line over Video Game Licensing

Jackson makes 19 allegations, among them that New Line improperly deducted costs relating to home video, used the wrong royalty rate to compute DVD sales, charged too much for subdistribution, did not pay for use of the film’s script and a song lyric written by Ms Walsh in an accompanying video game and incorrectly valued their cut from merchandise sales.

Sources: Gamasutra | Times Online | New York Times | EuroGamer | UGO | Joystiq | BBC | Video Business