Observers of patent litigation won’t be surprised to learn Konami took its legal missive to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. That court has a lengthy reputation for friendliness to patent holders.

A cursory review of three patents in question, held by Konami, by the Patent Arcade blog pointed some accusing fingers at Viacom’s Harmonix unit. Konami’s patents stem from their development of the well-known Dance Dance Revolution and the related Karaoke Revolution games.

“The first, U.S. Patent No. 6,390,923…generally appears (reading claim 10 of this patent) directed to dividing the game play screen into sections for different instruments, displaying instruction patterns for each instrument, and outputting a sound corresponding to operation of the instrument,” said Patent Arcade.

The blog made similar observations about the other two patents. Some of the related patent applications go back a decade.

Bloomberg said Konami wants money and a block against Harmonix and Viacom using the disputed technology. Viacom had not responded to the complaint as of yet.

Since its original release in fall 2005, the Guitar Hero franchise sold 14 million units in North America, according to The NPD Group.  In 10 weeks since the games launch, users have downloaded more than five million songs. Players of Guitar Hero rival Rock Band have downloaded more than 2.5 million songs since its launch in November 2007.

"Guitar Hero is one of the biggest brands and one of the most powerful distribution platforms in all of entertainment today," said Michael Griffith, President and Chief Executive Officer, Activision Publishing, Inc.

"Guitar Hero’s popularity with broad audiences is a confirmation that video games have become a true mass medium."

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision is a global developer. Publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment. Activision posted net revenues of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007.

The company has operations in The U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
 

A Metallica pack is currently the game’s best selling music download, followed by three song packs from The Police, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie and a collection of Black Sabbath covers. Best selling singles are Foreigner’s "Juke Box Hero", followed by Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Fortunate Son," Weezer’s "Buddy Holly" and The Knack’s "My Sharona."

MTV says that more music will be available for download every week through 2008 through a variety of song packs, albums and individual tracks ranging in price from $.99 to $2.99 per track.

"Our goal with Rock Band was to create an entirely new way for people to interact with the music they love," stated Van Toffler, president, MTVN Music Group/Logo/Films.

"The incredible response to the downloadable content we’ve released to date motivates us even more to establish this platform as a way for people to discover new, up and coming artists through the game – in addition to delivering great game play experiences set to the
music of mega- artists."