Gibson is none too happy about Activision's 'Guitar Hero' pictured here.
(Credit: Activision)This post was updated at 4:12 AM on Monday to reflect the fact that Gibson has added MTV, Harmonix, and EA to the list of plaintiffs.
Legendary guitar manufacturer Gibson Guitar has sued six major retailers--Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Amazon.com, Gamestop, and Toys-R-Us--for selling Activision's Guitar Hero video game series, MarketWatch reported Friday.
The decision was made "reluctantly," according to a statement from Gibson.
Earlier this month, Gibson sued Activision over Guitar Hero, claiming that the game violated a 1999 patent for a virtual-reality guitar-playing device that "simulate(s) participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3-D display that includes stereo speakers." A copy of the patent included in Gibson's original lawsuit is indeed dated November 23, 1999.
Activision filed for declaratory relief on March 11, claiming that Gibson's lawsuit came about after the video game publisher nixed a marketing deal with the guitar manufacturer. "Gibson waited three years to make its patent allegations, and only did so after it became clear that Activision was not interested in renewing its marketing and support agreement with Gibson," the Activision filing stated. "Activision continues to believe that Gibson's claims are disingenuous and lack any justification."
But in Gibson's latest move, filed Monday, the Nashville, Tenn.-based company has chosen to target retailers as well--a tactic that Activision quickly criticized.
"Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong," Activision said in a statement. "We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers."
On Friday, Gibson made it clear that it's after any guitar-playing game, as it added MTV, Harmonix, and Electronic Arts to the list of plaintiffs. MTV, which acquired Guitar Hero developer Harmonix in 2006, uses EA as the distributor for its Rock Band game. Rock Band, a Guitar Hero competitor that was released last November, allows players to team up on vocals, bass, and drums in addition to guitar.
(Credit:
Negri Electronics)
This should be interesting. Ever since some purported product photos began circulating nearly a year ago, the "M8 MiniOne" media player from China-based Meizu has gained notice--and a measure of notoriety--for a design that looks strikingly similar to the iPhone. And now it's reportedly headed for the U.S. market, making its first appearance at January's annual CES trade show in Las Vegas--which Engadget and others speculate will send Apple's copyright attorneys scurrying to file intellectual property claims as fast as you can say preliminary injunction. In fact, even the wallpaper depicted in the image shown here is apparently a matter of some dispute. So much for international detente.
It's almost time for another patent and intellectual property auction from Ocean Tomo, and the gem in the catalog this time is a patent on a poker game.
Invented by Anthony Cabot, the game, informally called Multiway Poker, involves dealing 25 cards facedown in a 5x5 array. You then make hands out of the rows. In all, there are 12 hands in each deal: five vertical rows, five horizontal rows and two diagonal ones. There are a ton of variations, but the most common is draw poker.
The patent, No. 7,007,953, has an expected value of $75,000. It can be licensed to makers of video-gaming machines, but also to casinos or card rooms, in case they want to add it to their repertoire.
Five by five plus diagonal
(Credit: Multiway Poker)You can try it out here. Don't worry. They aren't charging royalties. It's a bit confusing, but the number of combinations is sort of fun. The auction takes place on October 24 and 25 in Chicago.
Patents are reigning boogeymen in the tech world. Companies and individuals regularly get in a tizzy about people who are getting rich off of allegedly flimsy patents. It is true that patent claims have increased in recent years. But when pushed, it's rare for a company to say its own patents are flimsy. That's the other guy. When companies do open up their patent portfolios for free licensing, the free patents are often not the very valuable ones.
Part of the reason that patent reform has taken so long is that the subject is painted in shades of gray.
Ocean Tomo is trying to create a more fluid market for patents by holding periodic auctions involving a wide range of patents. The auctions typically result in a few million in sales. They even hired Charlie Ross, an auctioneer from Britain who can be seen on a TV show in Britain called Flog It! (on camera?) as well as Antiques Roadshow.
Approximately 76 lots of intellectual property will be auctioned off. Some of the patents to be sold include one that promises to update electronic clocks without human intervention (estimated value $100,000-plus), a patent for cleaning up abandoned shopping carts on Web sites estimated value $2 million) and one for Raman optical amplifiers. Iomega is also going to sell off a patent for formatting low capacity storage devices.
Some of the patent portfolios sell for millions at the auction. Lest you think they are all so-called "patent trolls," the sellers have included the University of California and IBM.
In past auctions, Ocean Tomo has auctioned off stills and video from the classic rock era, including a snippet of Keith Richards getting electrocuted, a Jimi Hendrix song catalog and several patents for flat panels.
(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)
Many things have helped the virtual world Second Life grow, including behavioral freedoms, fantastical outfits, buildings and vehicles, complex socialization and more.
But it is perhaps users' ability to create content, own its intellectual property rights and sell it for profit that has helped it become one of the hottest digital environments around.
Now, that dynamic is being threatened. Software recently introduced into Second Life called CopyBot is making it possible to copy any object, including its textures, regardless of whether such action interferes with someone's intellectual property rights.
Apparently, a whole lot of Second Life content creators are upset.
"Today I met with a large group of residents, members of the Sellers Guild, to talk about the implications" of CopyBot, Robin Harper, the vice president of community development and support at Linden Lab, which publishes Second Life, wrote in an official blog posting late Monday. "Needless to say this product has caused tremendous worry among content creators who want to understand how its use may possibly affect their business."
(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)
The problem is that Linden Lab, at least as can be judged by Harper's posting, has little power to stop the effects of CopyBot in the short term. Harper continued by pointing out that not all object copying is theft, given that many content creators already allow their designs to be freely copied.
But others don't. For such people who find their work illegally re-created by users with CopyBot, Harper said that one option is to file a Digital Millenium Copyright Act complaint and that Linden Lab may well assist in such processes.
She also made several other suggestions, each of which is just that, and which may take time.
"Ultimately, it's the DMCA process that provides you with the channel to protect your investment," she wrote.
This is all well and good, but what's clear here is that CopyBot is moving a lot faster than any DMCA process could, and many content creators are upset. And that is something that Linden Lab cannot allow to continue unabated. Because, after all, what is a marketplace with no sellers?
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