After receiving a letter accusing them of patent infringement, Activision filed a declaratory judgment action March 12, 2008, against Gibson Guitars, asking the court for finding of invalidity and noninfringement. Gibson is asserting that it has a patent on a musical performance simulation, which Gibson alleges Activision infringes via its popular Guitar Hero games.
The lawsuit was filed in the Central District of >California. The patent is U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,405, entitled System and Method for Generating and Controlling a Simulated Musical Concert Experience, issued Nov. 23, 1999. At a glance, the broadest claim appears to be:
13. A system for simulating participation of a user playing a musical instrument in a pre-recorded musical performance having audio and video portions, the musical instrument producing instrument audio signals at an instrument audio output when the instrument is played, comprising:
a. a source playback device for playback of the audio and video portions of the pre-recorded musical performance through corresponding source audio and source video outputs;
b. a source audio control device for controlling one or more characteristics of the audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance during playback, the source audio control means operably >connected to the source audio output and to the instrument audio output and having a controlled audio output; and
c. the source audio control device is responsive to the instrument audio signals whereby at least one characteristic of the audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance is controlled by playing of the musical instrument by the user.
Well keep tracking this case and let you know of any major developments.

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