Harmonix goes from plaintiff to defendant

A few months ago Harmonix sued its former publisher Activision for allegedly not paying it proper royalties for "Guitar Hero III." That suit was dropped presumably to be settled out of court, but now Harmonix is on the receiving end of a music game related suit from one of its past publishers. Ahhh, the circle of life.

Konami, which  published Harmonix's "Karaoke Revolution" games, is suing the MTV-owned developer for allegedly violating its patents related to "simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a 'musical-rhythm matching game,'" according to Bloomberg. Konami is demanding its fair share of the Benjamins, plus an order preventing Harmonix from using its patents. There's no indication of what such an order would do to "Rock Band' exactly, though I can't imagine it would be an easy fix.

Here's Harmonix's official response, according to Wired:

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.