Gibson Guitar Corp. is accusing Activision of violating one of their patents with the popular Guitar Hero series of video games. The patent in question is owned by Gibson since 1999 and involves a system that would let a musician “virtually” participate in a pre-recorded concert while wearing a head-mounted 3D display with speakers. The music played on the instrument would then be recorded on a separate track and available for playback with the rest of the tracks to simulate playing in a concert.

Activision’s Guitar Hero does have a similar premise, however it’s played on a “pretend” plastic guitar and is a game where the player tries to mimic notes in concert represented on the monitor by graphical musicians in a concert. Activision is disputing the claim that they infringe upon Gibson’s patent and is asking the federal court to provide an official ruling.

While we are certainly not patent experts, these two systems do seem to have similarities but also appear to have different purposes, especially since Gibson doesn’t have a record of creating video games, or games of any sort. The Gibson patent appears to be much more geared towards a technical music recording and to help musicians practice and improve on performances. Activision is simply making a game where users can pretend to be in a concert and play along in a competition to earn the most points.

AP