Konami has finally initiated the lawsuit predicted on message boards for months. Bloomberg is reporting that the publisher of rhythm games such Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, and DrumMania is suing Viacom, parent company of MTV Games, because they feel that Rock Band violates patents issued by the company in 2002 and 2003. The patents in question relate to simulated musical instruments, music-game systems, and a "musical-rhythm matching game." If Konami wins the case, they will receive cash compensation and action taken on their order to block Viacom and Harmonix from using their inventions.

When asked to comment on the case, a spokesperson from MTV Games and Harmonix said, "Konami’s actions are extremely surprising. Unfortunately, successful products such as Rock Band can often become targets for baseless litigation. We have substantial defenses to this claim and intend to vigorously defend it." Konami’s only response was the standard, "We do not comment on pending litigations."

Why isn’t Activision being sued? As a report by Gamasutra from 2007 points out, Konami and Activision worked out a deal previously, the details of which remain confidential.

In an ironic turn of events, MTV, in conjunction with Devecka Enterprises, released the first arcade drum game back in 1997 called Drumscape. Yes, that’s right, Drumscape was released before Konami released several years before the first iteration of DrumMania (which hit arcades in 1999). Drumscape may have been released in 1997, but Devecka’s patent for a "method and apparatus for simulating a jam session and instructing a user in how to play the drums" wasn’t filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office until 1998. In 2006, Activision purchased all Devecka Enterprises’ U.S. and international patents and hired founder John R. Devecka to help create the drums used in Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Regardless of who you believe to be the winner and loser in this case, gamers can only hope that MTV and Harmonix can continue developing their groundbreaking series, which is currently the only band-based rhythm game offering full backward compatibility for downloadable content.