Gwen Stefani Settles Band Hero Legal Fight
added 04 October 2012 at 11.39
No Doubt have settled their legal action against video game giant Activision over the use of the group's likenesses in Band Hero.
Court records show Gwen Stefani's Grammy-winning band reached a settlement on Monday, although the terms have not been disclosed.
No Doubt sued the California-based video games company in November 2009 - and the settlement quashes the impending trial.
Stefani, keyboardist Tom Dumont, bassist and keyboardist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young claimed they were never told that players would be able to unlock avatars of themselves to perform other artists' music.
They cited instances in Band Hero in which players could use Stefani to perform suggestive lyrics from the Rolling Stones' hit Honky Tonk Women.
Players could also watch a virtual version of Kanal sing his band's hit Just A Girl, but with Stefani's voice.
Their lawsuit claimed the feature turned the band "into a virtual karaoke circus act".
Activision claimed the idea of "unlocking" unadvertised features of a video game had been around since the early days of the industry - and the company had done nothing wrong.
But in May this year a judge ruled No Doubt could argue fraud, violation of publicity rights and breach of contract claims at a trial which had been scheduled to begin on October 15.
No Doubt's lawyer, Bert Deixler, declined to comment on the settlement and a lawyer for Activision did not return a phone message.
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