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Konami suing Roxor Games

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 5:44 pm
by imported_Andrew
http://www.konami.co.jp/en/news/topics/050511/
On May 9, 2005, Konami Corporation (Konami) filed a complaint against Roxor Games, Inc., Austin, TX., with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, asking the court to grant an injunction and damages against Roxor's "In The Groove" dance simulation game. The complaint is based upon that game's and Roxor's infringement of Konami's patent and trademark rights in its Dance Dance Revolution® arcade game, as well as upon unfair competition law.

Dance Dance Revolution® ("DDR") is a dance simulation game in which game players are evaluated based on their success in dancing in time with music of their own selection. Their movements consist of stepping on foot panels in time with graphical and musical queues from the DDR game. DDR was launched in Japan in October 1998 and thereafter became a worldwide success. With its launch, DDR actually created the entire category of dance simulation arcade games. The home-version DDR game has also become an international success.

The present lawsuit complains that Roxor Game's refitting of DDR arcade games has been done in an infringing and unfair way. Konami will continue to take any legal measures necessary to protect Konami's intellectual property rights in DDR and other Konami products.
It's not like Konami is ever going to make another arcade mix, though I don't blame them for being jealous of someone one-upping them.

I find it humorous though that basically what Konami is complaining about is people turning old DDR cabinets into ITG, by switching out the software. One, the people own the machines and can do whatever they want, and 2 it's technically illegal for the DDR machine to bei n the US anyway.

But still, I want my PS2 ITG.

[ May 11, 2005, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: PenguinMan ]

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 6:50 pm
by PenguinMan
Well, this will be interesting to see how it pans out. They tried suing AndaMiro, the guys who made Pump It Up, but I don't think they won. Konami might have a case this time, since the gameplay is so similar. I'm just surprised it took them that long.

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 7:02 pm
by CaptHayfever
Who would name a company Roxor anyway?

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 7:37 pm
by imported_Andrew
I believe AndaMiro sued back and neither side won because both were in development at the same time, the pads are different and the music genres are a little different.

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 9:35 pm
by PenguinMan
^^ No idea. Spending too much time on the Internet, I guess.

^ I don't know about that, but apparently the lawsuit is more about ITG being run on DDR machines, nothing more.

Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 1:40 pm
by imported_Andrew
I don't get it how it's different from upgrading a computer.

Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 4:52 pm
by CaptHayfever
^Licensing is the difference.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 9:04 pm
by Deepfake
I don't suppose you'd recall the outcry from Atari when "General Computers" started retro-fitting older machines such as Missile Command with speedup chips and other modifications.

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