Rock Band‘s publisher is defending itself from Konami’s patent claims.
Late last week, Guitar Freaks and Dance Dance Revolution developer Konami issued a suit against MTV Games and Harmonix, home to Rock Band, for illegally infringing on three of its patents from 2002 and 2003 related to various music game input devices and game mechanics. Konami seeks cash reimbursement from Harmonix and an injuction against MTV to stop the production of music game peripherals.
MTV found the sudden case to be “extremely surprising,” but is prepared to fight the legal battle.
An MTV spokesperson told Gamasutra, “Unfortunately, successful products such as Rock Band can often become targets for baseless litigation. We have substantial defenses to this claim and intend to vigorously defend it.”
Konami declined to comment on any litigation questions.
Activision avoided such as problem by simply paying Konami to license the patents for Guitar Hero.
