Activision

This week’s Patently Obvious report focuses on U.S. Patent No. 5,990,405 which the Gibson Guitar Company claimed in a March 20, 2008 lawsuit that Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., MTV Networks, and Electronic Arts, Inc. infringed upon. On June 8, 2010, Gibson settled its patent infringement claims against Harmonix, Viacom, Electronic Arts, and other retailers. The terms of this settlement were undisclosed, but it can be presumed that each of the defendants paid a licensing fee in the process.

On January 3, 2011, Walker Digital, an IP focused company well known for cases against Microsoft and Facebook, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Zynga, Activision and the latter’s subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment. The asserted patent, U.S 6,425,828 (hereafter ‘828), claims a method for conducting a networked electronic tournament for a plurality of players and storing player information for use in subsequent sessions. Zynga (FarmVille), Activision (Call of Duty and Guitar Hero) and Blizzard (World of Warcraft) are giants in the online gaming industry.