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Konami furious about Rock Band, wants it stopped

Game maker Konami wants to stop Viacom's Harmonix from selling the highly popular Rock Band simulation game and instruments due to alleged patent infringements.

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.