Drummania and Guitar Freaks — totally different from Rock Band.

Konami has filed a lawsuit against Harmonix, MTV Networks, and their parent company Viacom over alleged infringement in the Rock Band videogame.

Konami is claiming that Rock Band violates patents it filed way back in 2002 and 2003 that cover simulated musical instruments and a “musical-rhythm matching game”.

The publisher is seeking cash compensation and an order to block Viacom and Harmonix from using any of the peripherals included in the game, according to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in Marshall, Texas.

Before Harmonix’s success with Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Konami had it’s own guitar-themed game called Guitar Freaks, which first appeared in arcades in 1999 and also made its way onto the Playstation and Playstation 2.

There apparently is a patent on rocking out. Who knew?

Konami’s Digital Entertainment unit has recently announced Rock Revolution, another music-based videogame.

Viacom has yet to receive the complaint, so has not made any comments on the situation.

Sounds like a stretch to me, but it might just be some stunt by Konami to work its new Rock Revolution game into the mix of things. We’ll have an update when more information becomes available.

Source: Bloomberg.com

Tags: court, Drummania, Guitar Freaks, Guitar-Hero, patent, ridiculousness, Rock-Band, sue

• Konami Rock Band Suit: Harmonix Responds Calling Claim Bassless, errr “Baseless”
• Harmonix Receives Big Bonus for Rock Band’s Success
• Drink Up, Rock Out: Pepsi Harmonix Rock Band Limited Edition Guitar Giveaway
• Harmonix Wants to Bury the Hatchet Over Broken Axes – Free EA Game For Rock Band Troubled Customers
• Is There A Line For U2: Rock Band On The Horizon?
• Harmonix Admits To Faulty Rock Band Guitars: Strum Bars “Imperfect”
• LEGO Rock Band announced
• Rock Band DLC – A Matter of Life and Death

3 Comments » HombreMega on July 10, 2008 10:30 pm Rock Revolution?? Too little too late. Kramer Loves Hecklers on July 10, 2008 10:46 pm Konami should stick to games that involve 40 hours of cinematics and 10 minutes worth of loading time between each level….it’s what they are good at. Patrick Steen on July 11, 2008 3:18 am Konami already have an agreement with Activision (Guitar Hero III) RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.