It appears that Gibson has a tough battle ahead. Our sister blog Kotaku has been following this story since the litigation was announced a couple weeks ago, and they have posted statements from Activision and Harmonix, as well as Gibson's rebuttal, which claims that the guitar maker tried to negotiate a licensing deal with the game companies, but could not reach an agreement. Sure to make things awkward is the fact that Guitar Hero, as mentioned, features heavy Gibson product placement, in the form of controllers, purchasable guitars in the store, and in-game ads during play. Rock Band, on the other hand, uses guitars from rival company Fender, which might be able to snag licensing in the next version of Guitar Hero if this lawsuit is not easily resolved and instead, through the fire and the flames, carries on.

Gibson lawsuit stories [Kotaku]
(Photo: Alex Chasick)

MTV .... To be honest, we've never required any "customer service" from MTV, so we're not really sure why they are nominated. It seems some people are still upset that video killed the radio star.

TransUnion is a credit rating service that holds in its hands your financial destiny. Hope that it doesn't misplace it...

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

"Demonstrating the product benefit" at its finest. (Thanks to Joel!)