Reports are coming in around the country that ‘Operation Mo-Money’, a joint operation from Gibson, FBI, and the RIAA has begun.   Best Buy and Circuit City retail stores around the country are reporting that raids are randomly occurring, with armed men storming the stores and confiscating any guitars.   FBI SWAT teams, reportedly wielding plastic guns, rushed each store while representatives from Gibson and the RIAA oversaw the operation.  All Gibson guitars were confiscated, whether they were real, video game related, Activision branded or not.  “Better to be safe than sorry”.

Gibson representative Barney Sleats stated “We take our intellectual property very seriously.   It’s very clear in our patent that anything that looks like a guitar that isn’t a guitar is ours.  So selling fake guitars without giving us mo-money is bad.”   Several of the raids have produced incidents, including wedgies, noogies, and one of the representatives from Gibson got kicked in the nuts.  Hard.  He fell down.

One bystander commented, “They don’t even have real guns.  They’re plastic.  How would they feel if Remington busted into their house and took their toys away.”

One of the RIAA reps was asked what their role in ‘Operation Mo-Money’ was, they simply stated ‘We heard there was a lawsuit, so we are here’.

Gibson has finally gone too far.  If you are reading this article, it is very likely you are about to be sued by guitar maker Gibson.  No, seriously.  Here’s who they’re suing so far:

Activision (threatened to sue for patent infringement, still mysteriously not being sued officially)
Gamestop, Target, WalMart, Amazon and more Various Retailers (maybe this suit will have merit)
EA (huh? they don’t have anything to do with Guitar Hero??)
MTV (wait, how about we sue MTV!)
Viacom (energizer bunny stationed at the courthouse)
Harmonix (F**K it, we’re suing everyone else -let’s go for the Gold!)

What’s going on here? Well, apparently Activision/RedOctane’s longtime guitar making partner Gibson has decided that its not fair that Gibson isn’t making more money now that Guitar Hero has been such a success (Waaaah!). Gibson has been licensing its guitars for use as controllers since the original 2005 release of Guitar Hero and now claims that the GH series infringes upon one of its 1999 patents and is asking for all game sales to be halted. Why now?? Well it might have something to do with the fact that Activision has decided it was no longer interested in renewing its “marketing and support agreement with Gibson”.

Activision responded to Gibson’s January request to “relicense” in March by asking a court to invalidate Gibson’s patent (uh, hey its been like 3 years that we’ve been doing this and you’re just noticing this now??) So, preparing for battle, Gibson decides to make loud noises and sue all the major retailers selling the game. Come on, who sues Toys R Us? Evil people, I say.

Hey, and while they’re at it, Rock Band seems to be making money too.. let’s go ahead and sue Harmonix, because they used to be involved in Guitar Hero right? Wait - Rock Band is using Fender Guitar controllers… details, details - that shouldn’t matter.  Let’s get on record saying that Rock Band is infringing us too!

So, as you can see, you’re going to need to find yourself a good intellectual property attorney, because since you are talking about, holding, strumming, playing with, whammying, star powering, hammering on, pulling off, and otherwise coveting your Xplorer and Les Paul controllers, you are OBVIOUSLY VIOLATING GIBSON’S PATENTS!

Good luck and may justice be with you in court. See you there!

From Reuters:

SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES, March 12 (Reuters) - Gibson Guitar Inc has told Activision Inc that its wildly popular “Guitar Hero” video games infringe one of Gibson’s patents, and Activision has asked a U.S. court to find the claim invalid.

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.

On Tuesday, Activision filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court for Central California to declare Gibson’s patent invalid and to bar it from seeking damages.

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