Konami suing Harmonix over Rock Band
Remember when Rock Band was announced and you thought about what a cool idea that was and how smart Konami was for making that game after the success of Karaoke Revolution, even though Harmonix had already produced Guitar Hero (which seems to be the true pre-cursor to Rock Band)? Then you found out that Konami wasn’t producing Rock Band, but some other company called Harmonix was? Apparently, Konami does. Long after the game’s release and long, long after the game was announced, Konami has finally gotten around to suing Harmonix for infringing upon their patent for a `musical-rhythm matching game.’
If Konami indeed owns a patent that broad, then they may have a case but it seems like it must be way too late for this sort of thing to have any effect. They are actually asking for “cash compensation, plus an order that would block Viacom and Harmonix from using the inventions.” How much cash isn’t disclosed, but it seems like if Konami has a case, then they could be in for a huge cash cow.
Whatever the case, Harmonix came forward today saying that they haven’t received the complaint yet, which just sounds like a corporate way of saying, “Na na na, we can’t hear you!!”
Read more at Bloomberg
Tags: audio, games, gadgetry, video game
