RedOctane Sues for Guitar Patent Rights

Red octane and their new Activision owners filed a lawsuit last month on games accessory company The Ant Commandos. They are charged with producing unlicensed controllers that can be used in conjunction with Red Octane's guitar Hero musical title. Among the retailed trinkets we can see bongo drums for Nintendo, wireless guitar versions for Guitar Hero, dance pads, Soccer Arena matrices, XBOX 360 Travel Cases and improved PSP batteries.

RedOctane insists that The Ant Commandos' guitar controllers prove to be "unfair competition, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices, false advertising, unjust enrichment and more." Sustaining their claims seems to be the similar packaging and advertising, as well as the questionable quality of the controllers. They are not 100% compatible with Guitar Hero since the tilt function, necessary to activate Star Power, isn't all that consistent in their guitar versions.

GameSpot quotes the law suit: "Defendants have copied the packaging of Plaintiffs' products and have used Plaintiffs' trademarks and copyrighted material in its packaging and advertising of its own products in an effort to cause confusion among consumers."

Red Octane is very demanding of The Ant Company. It is expected they no longer make, advertise or sell the guitars, recall those already sold and turns over all materials for destruction. All these along with the usual reimbursement for profits made out of the sales, damages and attorney's fees. Ironically enough, before striking it rich with Guitar Hero and being acquired by Activision, Red Octane was subjected to a law suit where Konami had about the same complaints, since the company used to create peripherals for "Dance Dance Revolution" series.