Rock Band

JULY 10, 2008 • Konami Corp. filed a lawsuit against Viacom Inc. claiming the latter’s Harmonix studio violated Konami patents in creating the hit Rock Band. The suit cites 2002 and 2003 patents regarding simulated musical instruments in a music game. Konami is seeking cash compensation and an injunction against Viacom from further selling products based on the patents.

Impact: Success has a thousand fathers. Viacom and EA have a huge hit in Rock Band, which is good enough for Konami to claim paternity in the courts. The development community is both incestuous and derivative. If anyone had patented the presentation of lava, storage crates or jumping mechanisms in video games, they would be exceedingly rich today. The current increase of patent lawsuits has become a lamentable cost of doing business with a consolidated publisher community fixated on 1 million-plus sellers.