NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Last Thursday, 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 claims the company has 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," states Gibson. The Gibson press release continues, "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 Guitar is basing its lawsuit on patent number
5,990,405, which states:
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.
The Gibson patent was filed in 1998 and issued in 1999. However, Harmonix has their own patent, number
7,320,643. The Harmonix patent was filed in 2007 and issued in 2008. It reads:
A simulated musical instrument may be used to alter the audio of a video game, the video aspects of video game, or both. Use of a controlled simulating a musical instrument allows a rhythm-action game can be enjoyed in a manner closer to a realistic state of playing an instrument.It's pretty obvious why Harmonix has not responded, Rock Band is not a virtual 3D environment. It's simple, Rock Band's guitar is simply a game controller fashioned to look a guitar. I'm sure the engineers who designed Rock Band's guitar game controller are looking at Gibson's patent and wondering, wtf?
Gibson also sent a letter to Activsion back in January. Activision said its games did not infringe Gibson's patent, and that by waiting three years to raise its claim, the guitar maker had granted an implied license for any technology.
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Read the claims, not the abstract
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 03/24/2008 - 07:05.It's the language of the claims that determines whether or not someone is infringing the patent. In this case, claim 1 reads:
"A system for electronically simulating participation by a user in a pre-recorded musical performance comprising:
a. a musical instrument, the musical instrument generating an instrument audio signal at an instrument audio output, the instrument audio signal varying in response to operation of the instrument by the user of the system;
b. a video source providing a source video signal at a source video output, the source video signal representing a video portion of the pre-recorded musical performance;
c. a video display responsive to the source video signal whereby the user can view the video portion of the pre-recorded musical performance on the video display;
d. an audio source providing a source audio signal at a source audio output, the source audio signal representing an audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance, the audio portion including an instrument sound track containing pre-recorded musical sounds that would be generated by the musical instrument in the pre-recorded musical performance;
e. a system interface device having a first audio input electrically connected to the instrument audio output, a second audio input electrically connected to the source audio output, and a first interface audio output;
f. the system interface device including a source audio control circuit responsive to the instrument audio signal, whereby a characteristic of the source audio signal is controlled in response to operation of the musical instrument by the user to provide a controlled source audio signal at the first interface audio output; and
g. an audio playback transducer responsive to the controlled source audio signal such that the user can listen to the audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance on the transducer, in synchronization with the video portion."
Part "c" is the only limitation related to video, and definitely applies to a video game system.
HOWEVER, I don't see Harmonix's game controller being "a musical instrument...generating an instrument audio signal." Gibson did not foresee game controllers being used to simulate actual instruments. So, there is no LITERAL INFRINGEMENT. I also doubt that there is EQUIVALENT infringement but that depends on the lawyers and jury (and Markman hearing).
As for the Virtual headset limitation, that only comes into play in claims 10-12:
10. The system of claim 1 wherein the audio source and the video source are combined in a video tape machine.
11. The system of claim 1 wherein the audio source and the video source are combined in a video disc machine.
12. The system of either claim 10 or claim 11 wherein the video display and the audio playback transducer are combined in a stereoscopic head set wearable by the user.
No Infringement
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 03/24/2008 - 12:21.A. Rock Band's guitar is not a musical instrument, but a game controller.
B. wtf?
C. Nobody is viewing the audio signal or watching a pre-recorded musical performance.
D. Comes close, but there is no musical instrument here.
E. no infringement
F. no infringement
G. no infringement
Anyways, a 2D game with a joystick shaped like a guitar does not constitute patent infringement and is no way even close to a 3D virtual environment.
patent protection
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 03:51.the way things work in some places, if you don't defend your patent, even if it doesn't exactly apply, you lose the rights to it, a patent lawyers dream.