Konami sues Harmonix and MTV

By Ellie Gibson Published 11 July, 2008

Claims Rock Band violates patents.

Konami has filed a lawsuit against Harmonix, MTV and Viacom, claiming music game Rock Band infringes on its patents.

As reported by Bloomberg, Konami is referring to patents issued in 2002 and 2003. These refer to a "musical rhythm-matching game" and musical instrument peripherals.

Konami wants cash compensation, plus an order preventing Viacom and Harmonix from "using its inventions", as the article puts it. The companies named in the suit have yet to comment.

Meanwhile, Konami is working on Rock Revolution - a peripheral-based music game in development for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. As reported in May, it'll come with a guitar and drum kit, and according to Bloomberg will be out later this year.

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About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cawley1 #1 4 years ago

    Go Konami, If you win, maybe you can use the cash to make some next-gen Goemon, Parodius and Contra games, as opposed to all that Bemani shit you seem to pride yourself on these days...

  • MrMarbles #2 4 years ago

    Just remove the arrow docks and it'll allllllllll be fine.

  • LazyDan #3 4 years ago

    This is hilarious if you follow Konami based news. Most hardcore DDR fans will tell you Konami are the devil (I'm friends with one) and on reading into it, they do actually sound like massive pricks. I vaguely recall them discontinuing a certain DDR game, then shitting lawsuits everywhere when a fan-made update hit the internet.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #4 4 years ago

    Pissing in the wind...

  • Eighthours #5 4 years ago

    Laughable. Why on Earth aren't they sueing Red Octane as well?

  • Dizzy #6 4 years ago

    What's next? Gibson sues Konami for making a game with a "guitar"?

  • Eraysor #7 4 years ago

    What tools. I hope they don't win, because that Rock Revolution game looks shite.

  • Dr.Mott #8 4 years ago

    There's no chance in hell that they'll win.

    Unless they beat the devil in a Guitar Battle. Which I still can't do on hard. It makes me cry sometimes.
    Edited by 1 at 11/07/08 @ 09:32

  • Shinji #9 4 years ago

    Hey Konami, when you file a fucking patent, fucking use it, fuckmorons.

    In fairness, they have been producing Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania games for arcades and home consoles on a regular basis for years and years. It's just that they never really made it in the US / Europe, for whatever reason (lack of locally licensed tracks, I suspect).

    That said, this kind of patent case is fundamentally an abuse of the whole patent system, and any company who engages in stuff like this is automatically in the sin bin - it's damaging, anti-competitive, anti-consumer nonsense.

  • CaptianScarlet #10 4 years ago


    ->Company takes out patent.

    -> Other company releases news about game that might infringe patent.

    -> Company with patent say nothing and wait patiently to see if other companies patent infringing product makes shed loads of money.

    -> Company who infringed patent make shed loads of money.

    -> Company who own patent suddenly get angry and sue over patent infringements.

    Done!

  • McBradders #11 4 years ago

    Well if they sue the competitors out of the market, Rock Revolution will be a success, right?

    Right?

  • Tzetrik #12 4 years ago

    I doubt this will have anything to do with Guitars, its the scrolling notation used for the vocalist player. Its exactly the same system as Karaoke revolution - a Konami patent, despite being originally developed by Harmonix.

    KR has 7 titles in the US & 7 in Japan - far more content than GH or rockband. The people who invented and patented this idea are more than welcome try and stop it being ripped off IMO
    Edited by 2 at 11/07/08 @ 09:52

  • delta_tango #13 4 years ago

    you snooze, you lose... lazy konami

  • varsas #14 4 years ago

    I was wondering when they would get around to doing this...

  • Der_tolle_Emil #15 4 years ago

    Konami aren't pricks in that case though. This lawsuit is one of the few that is actually valid. If you look at the guitarhero.com website, take a loot at the footnotes:

    Guitar Hero © 2008 Activision Publishing, Inc. Guitar Hero, Activision, and RedOctane are registered trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc Covered by one or more of the following patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 5,739,457, 6,018,121, 6,225,547, 6,347,998, 6,369,313, 6,390,923, 6,425,822, 6,645,067 and 6,835,887

    Activision paid for the patents by Konami with the Guitar Hero franchise - MTV/Viacom didn't. That's a very important detail because that doesn't mean that Konami is just now realizing that there's money to make but that MTV/Viacom indeed voilate those patents.

  • johnnybrn #16 4 years ago

    Are we gonna get a comment from EA like 'guitars are so last gen' now? ;)

  • ZuluHero #17 4 years ago

    So if you can't beat them, sue them?

    ...and in other news, EA contunue to push over all the other devs in the playground...

  • itsfuzzy #18 4 years ago

    Hey Konami, when you file a fucking patent, fucking use it, fuckmorons.

    Exactly.

    Piss off Konami. Spend your time trying to fix the bag of shite that is now PES.
    1 of your only decent franchises that you have destroyed.. . . .

  • kangarootoo #19 4 years ago

    @Der_tolle_Emil

    Well spotted. I wonder if the discussion will now follow that line of inquiry, or whether everyone will ignore it so they can continue to be angry. I don't know either way what exactly is going on here, but I would like to find out. I'm funny like that.

  • penhalion #20 4 years ago

    Let me get this right. You guys are now defending Harmonix. The company that blatantly overpriced in europe and pretty much took your money while bending you over the back of a chair and lubing up. While Konami arguably thought up the whole concept of instruments with an arcade music game, made a tonne of them years before Harmonix even existed and now wnat legitimate monies from them for nicking the idea........

  • daz_john_smith #21 4 years ago

    Seems straightforward enough. If Konami own the patents and Activision/RedOctane pony up and pay for their usage then so should Harmonix/MTV.

  • johnnybrn #22 4 years ago

    Methinks, Konami were crafty and waited for the game to be launched and then sued them when the game was on the shelves. This stuffs EA big time as they are in a quandry of having to pull games form the shelves pending trial and makes their position that more uncomfortable. Therefore I think they will be looking to settle rather than drag the issue out.



  • Der_tolle_Emil #23 4 years ago

    Well spotted. I wonder if the discussion will now follow that line of inquiry, or whether everyone will ignore it so they can continue to be angry.

    Probably the latter. But seeing the latest lawsuits it's not that surprising. Firms noone has ever heard of claiming to own patents for products that were never even manufactured and don't even have that much in common with the actual devices that supposedly infringe patents.

    This time though it's not a no-name company that released the controllers in question a couple of years ago (even if those are only really popular in Japanese arcades) and they are pretty much the same like the new ones - and they already got paid by other firms using guitar controllers so it's pretty obvious why they are suing Viacom.

    I support Konami, especially considering the price of Rock Band, which was higher than Guitar Hero's although Viacom doesn't even have to factor in the licensing fees for the patents like RedOctane had to and RB was still more expensive.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #24 4 years ago

    By the way, it's ridiculous to say that Konami shouldn't sue because they didn't release the games here in Europe. The iPhone wasn't available here in Europe for a very long time, Microsoft's Zune still isn't available in Europe. So if a company rips off those products and releases them here, would you say Apple doesn't have the right to sue then?

    Konami's products are real, just not very well known here, that's all.

  • johnnybrn #25 4 years ago

    Der_tolle_Emil,

    Apple have been sued themselves as Creative claimed the ipod ripped off on of their patents! ;)

  • Bitkari #26 4 years ago

    By the way, it's ridiculous to say that Konami shouldn't sue because they didn't release the games here in Europe

    Ironically, if they only released the games in Europe, they wouldn't be able to sue at all.

    Software patents are an American thing. They're not enforceable in Europe.

  • actionfitz #27 4 years ago

    tbh im still miffed enough about Rock Bands Euro price that i would laugh my ass off if Harmonix got fucked over, I realise they aren't the publisher... but they did go on record trying to defend it, so fuck em.
    I normally hate the idea that someone can patent extremely vague ideas and sue the shit out of anyone they feel like...
    but... karma... yeah.

  • InsoFox #28 4 years ago

    "tbh im still miffed enough about Rock Bands Euro price that i would laugh my ass off if Harmonix got fucked over, I realise they aren't the publisher... but they did go on record trying to defend it, so fuck em. "

    What a ridiculous statement. What did you expect them to say 'Oh, yeah. That's way expensive. You probably shouldn't buy the game we made at that price...'? Besides, anyone can find the game for less than the RRP. Not saying it's cheap, or fair, but just that everyone possibly over-reacted a touch at the start.

  • Kyle #29 4 years ago

    Fuck. Right. Off.

  • daz_john_smith #30 4 years ago

    @actionfitz
    +1

    @InsoFox
    Harmonix should've kept their mouths shut. Like how they said Band World Tour would be fixed and made online via a patch, but instead they're now rushing out RB2 and charging RRP for it. So much for the RB brand being a "platform" and not a "yearly franchise".