As with any big product that involves billions of dollars in sales, there are going to be the people and company’s that want their piece of the cash. The Guitar Hero franchise is no different as Activison is being bothered with lawsuits.

The first one I read about was a lawsuit from the original developer of the first 3 Guitar Hero games (1, 2, and 80’s), Harmonix. When the franchise was taken over by Activision there was a deal made with Harmonix that in the event the game would be developed by another company (Neversoft) that they would receive royalties from Activison. If the new game Guitar Hero 3 was built from scratch without using any Harmonix technology they would be paid a lower rate, but if the new developer built Guitar Hero 3 off old Harmonix technology they would be paid a higher rate. Apparently GH3 was built of old Harmonix technology, but Activision still only paid them the lower rate. It’s estimated that Activision owes Harmonix another $14.5 million. The lawsuit by Harmonix has since been dropped and the two company’s have agreed to settle the matter out of courts.

Check the article here.

It doesnt end there though.

It seems that Activision may have violated patents owned by guitar maker Gibson.

Gibson said the games, in which players press buttons on a guitar-shaped controller in time with notes on a TV screen, violates a 1999 patent for technology to simulate a musical performance.

It sounds like a bunch of crap honestly. Gibson wants to reach an agreement with Activision to use their patent or stop all sales of the game. Im not a lawyer, but it sounds like a pretty vague patent and I doubt Gibson will get anything. It’s a little odd that they decided to finally bother with the patent until now… 3 years after the first game was released. Maybe they forgot they had the patent? Dumb. Company’s are greedy. As if they don’t already make enough money. Why isn’t Rock band being bothered? Just curious.

Check out the article here.

I’m sure more and more companies will be finding obscure ways to file lawsuits against Activision in the future, so this probably won’t be the last time you see a post like this. It’s just companies trying to find a way to line their pockets a little more.