hello guys, does anybody know if you can protect a puzzle game by protecting the idea/logic of the game? let's say you develop a game, chess for example. can you you prevent others from creating another game of chess with different graphics, sounds, etc. by patenting the rules/method of the game (chess in this example)can you prevent others from developing a (better) game of chess? thanks. PS I know that chess is not patented.

fortunately, you can't (yet). See:

http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/

and you will see why software patents can be evil ^^

Yes you can usually patent game rules and ideas. It really has nothing to do with software. See US Patent # 5662332 for an example.

I'm no lawyer, but I think the protection needed for that would be copyright, not a trademark. This is going on my memory of an article I've read on GameDev twice now (the second time being last night!), but I'm not entirely trusting of my memory!

The article was here:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1985.asp

yeah, I wasn't talking about software patents but rather about playing method patents. so, it looks like krum pretty much got the answer.

the reason I was asking this is simple:
after you work hard to develop a game with limited resources, you would want a second chance to improve that game in case the first version/release was not the best. you don't want somebody else with loads of resources to capitalize on your playing rules/method by developing a new video game based on those rules.

this being said, is there other way (other than the playing method patent) to prevent others from building a video game based on your method of playing?

thank you all.

Read this, and do make minimal protection. The guidelines and permissions have changed over time, and a lot more types of content are protectable without great expense.

Registrar of Copyrights at the Library of Congress

Adventuredesign

Quote:

Original post by krum Yes you can usually patent game rules and ideas. It really has nothing to do with software. See US Patent # 5662332 for an example.

Ah, my favourite patent example! Yes, patents can and have been used to protect game ideas, as in the case of U.S. patent 5,662,332: Trading card game method to play granted to Wizards of the Coast, Inc.. It's the only way to protect the ideas behind a game, unless you can somehow make it a trade secret.

However, you'll have to make sure that you aren't basing your game too heavily on any other game before (that's prior art), so you couldn't patent chess, for example. You could patent a unique modification to chess, if it's unique enough.

But of course, patents can be useless if a large company just decides to steal your idea, unless you have the legal muscle to go after them. That's the main problem with patents at the moment; it all boils down to whoever has the most lawyers, wins.

The best way to protect your idea is to make your implementation of the game idea so great and fun that there's no reason for other people to steal your idea; everyone will be playing your game.

Quote:

Original post by Trapper Zoid The best way to protect your idea is to make your implementation of the game idea so great and fun that there's no reason for other people to steal your idea; everyone will be playing your game.

Didn't work for Tetris.