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Ubisoft faces patent lawsuit over Rocksmith tech

Guitar Apprentice, a company that provides virtual guitar tutorials to aspiring musicians, has filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, claiming the company has violated one of its patents with its recent instructional music game, Rocksmith.

Tom Curtis, Blogger

April 9, 2012

1 Min Read
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Newsbrief: Guitar Apprentice, a company that provides virtual guitar tutorials to aspiring musicians, has filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, claiming the company has violated one of its patents with its recent instructional music game, Rocksmith. Patent Arcade reports that Guitar Apprentice claims ownership of a patent for a "progressive musical instruction" system that teaches users to play an instrument via "audio signals corresponding to a predetermined musical performance." Both Rocksmtih and Guitar Apprentice use similar interfaces to teach users to play guitar -- the most apparent difference being that Rocksmith incorporates interactive elements via the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC, while Guitar Apprentice uses pre-set video tutorials on PC or DVD. Prior to Rocksmith's release in October 2011, Ubisoft said the product drew inspiration from GameTank's Guitar Rising, an unreleased program that explored the basic concepts of interactive music instruction.

About the Author

Tom Curtis

Blogger

Tom Curtis is Associate Content Manager for Gamasutra and the UBM TechWeb Game Network. Prior to joining Gamasutra full-time, he served as the site's editorial intern while earning a degree in Media Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

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