Last year, Gibson Guitar Inc. filed a suit against Activision's Guitar Hero for allegedly violating patent rights. About a year later today, a U.S. District Court in the Central District of California has finally given out its decision, holding that the music game franchise does not infringe on a 1999 Gibson patent, which simulates musical performance using a 3D headset display and stereo speakers.

Said the court, "Guitar Hero controllers are toys that represent other items," and as such are not necessarily musical instruments themselves. Apart from that, it was also found that the patent of the instruments company applies only to those virtual instruments that produce a kind of analog audio output. Excluded from its breadth would be those instruments producing MDI data.

Gibson also filed suits against Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts for their own music simulator franchise, Rock Band. This case has yet to be closed, but at least things are looking up for the said publishers given the results of the Activision case.

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