Konami expands scope of its litigation against
dance game developers and distributors in the U.S.
July 6, 2005
KONAMI CORPORATION
On July 1, 2005, Konami Corporation ("Konami") filed an amended version of its original complaint against Roxor Games, Inc. with the Eastern District of Texas Federal court. In addition to the prior counts of the original complaint, in which Konami seeks an injunction and damages against Roxor's "In The Groove" arcade dance simulation game, the amended complaint encompasses the recently released home version of Roxor's "In the Groove" game. The amended complaint further includes patent infringement complaints against RedOctane, which is the publisher of the home version of "In the Groove" game, and Mad Catz, which is the publisher of the dance game "MC GROOVZ danceCRAZE." All of these additional counts are based upon the accused games' infringement of Konami's patent rights in its Dance Dance Revolution® arcade game.
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.