Harmonix respond to Gibson's attempts to sue everyone involved in the creation of Guitar Hero.

The past couple of weeks have seen the guitar company Gibson, known for licensing their guitars out for every installment in the Guitar Hero series, decide to launch multiple lawsuits against everyone who was remotely involved in the creation and distribution of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. That includes Harmonix, Activision, EA, MTV, Viacom, GameStop, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon, and Toys 'R' Us.

Despite supporting the Guitar Hero series since 2005 right up to the present day, someone at Gibson seems to have come to the decision that it would clearly be a brilliant idea to drag up a patent from 1999, giving Gibson the rights anything which allows a musician to 'simulate participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3D display that includes stereo speakers'.

We think there's a greater chance of Darth Vader buying out Northern Rock than there is of Gibson winning their lawsuits. Let's look at the facts. Guitar Hero and Rock Band do not support the use of a 3D headset (hell, the Wii version doesn't even support stereo), and you don't actually use a musical instrument to play the games accused of infringing Gibson's patent.

Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band and the guys responsible for developing the first titles in the Guitar Hero series, share our belief that Gibson have nothing on them, and have proclaimed that the lawsuit is "completely without merit".

"It is unfortunate that Gibson unfairly desires to share in the tremendous success enjoyed by the developers of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. This lawsuit is completely without merit and we intend to defend it vigorously. Gibson's patent, filed nearly 10 years ago, required a 3D display, a real musical instrument and a recording of a concert. Rock Band and Guitar Hero are completely different: among other things they are games, require no headset and use a controller only shaped like a real instrument."

You can literally smell Gibson's desperation.