KnuckleBonz, Inc. announced today that the company has settled its trademark infringement suit with Red Octane, a

wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, Inc. over use of the Guitar Hero trademark. KnuckleBonz is the creator of limited edition music-based collectible sculpture that has been sold and marketed under their Guitar Hero name since the company was founded in 2003.

Under the terms of the settlement, KnuckleBonz has dropped its opposition to Activision’s use of the term Guitar Hero and trademark application. The settlement terms also include the sale of (2) KnuckleBonz website urls: guitarhero.com and guitarhero.net. KnuckleBonz will release all new products under both its KnuckleBonz and Rock Iconz trademarks. The company will unify all product info and ecommerce under their new website www.KnuckleBonz.com

“After months of confusion with customers as well as licensors, we were ready to differentiate ourselves from the game company and its guitar based game. Too many of our company’s resources were spent dealing with the confusion surrounding our Guitar Hero mark,” explains Tony Simerman, President and Creative Director of KnuckleBonz, Inc. “We are all pleased to be moving on to focus on the cool stuff we have in production for 2007.”
“While we started with sculpture of great guitarists, at the request of music fans, we are expanding our work to create figures across all areas of rock music, such as vocalists, keyboardists, etc,” says Simerman. “Rock Iconz is actually a more appropriate and descriptive name for our products going forward. We are excited about the launch of KnuckleBonz.com and new figures like Rob Halford, KK Downing and Glenn Tipton of JUDAS PRIEST as well as figures from QUEEN like Freddie Mercury and Brian May.”

“KnuckleBonz will begin taking orders and pre-orders for the sculpture collectibles at www.knucklebonz.com immediately. For a very limited time, customers can access the web store through guitarhero.com and guitarhero.net; however, the company will be transitioning to selling only through www.knucklebonz.com by late summer.

About KnuckleBonz, Inc. KnuckleBonz, Inc., established in 2003, is committed to the artistry of creating high-end collectible figure series for the icons of popular music. The company creates limited edition sculpture of music icons. The figures are cast in a poly-resin and hand-painted in fine detail. All sculpture is hand-numbered and includes a certificate of authenticity. Each of these figures are created in very limited editions (generally 3000 of each figure). Figures are available at the company’s web store (www.knucklebonz.com) and select retailers worldwide.

(Thanks BrianMay.com)