While some companies are looking into restructuring and creating new innovative products as means of beating the recessions, others are going for a slightly different means of getting more money: lawsuits. Activision was recently sued by Gibson, the guitar manufacturer that they’d partnered with in making the Guitar Hero games over patent infringement. Joining the ranks of the legally besieged is Microsoft.

They’ve been sued by online chat company Paltalk who are claiming that certain functions of the Xbox Live chat violate patents that they hold including technologies for “gaming communications through a group message server to maintain a consistent environment for all players, as well as establishing groups for online game play.” Microsoft says that they had meetings with the company when they were creating Xbox Live, but after examining their technology went another way. The company is seeking $90 million in compensation, with the trial set to begin in Texas this month.

After several years of happy partnership with Activision to make the Guitar Hero games someone at Gibson decided that the oodles of money they were probably getting from licensing fees and royalties weren’t enough. The guitar maker sued Activision claiming that the game series infringed on a patent they held for “simulating a musical performance” which was filed in 1999. As you might imagine Activision filed a counter-suit claiming that their product doesn’t infringe upon Gibson’s patent (for a technology that they never actually made I might add).

A US District Court judge ruled yesterday in favor of Activision, claiming that Gibson’s patent only applies to devices that output an analog audio signal and not MIDI signals or any kind of control signals. After all, the guitar controller doesn’t produce any sort of music in and of itself as a real guitar does. Gibson also had a lawsuit out against Rock Band for a similar patent infringement but with this ruling it’s very likely to be dismissed as well.