Hello, I just have a quick question, I hope this is the right board to ask it in. =) I'm thinking of creating a game that contains a collection of board and card games that I know of, and I was wondering about how legal it is to copy the rules and gameplay of board games/card games? I have heard something about it not being possible to copyright gameplay, does this mean that if I wanted to include Poker, Monopoly, 3 in a row or other games, would I have to get permission to "remake" these games? I guess that certain Game names and game characters would fall under some kind of patent or Trademark, but as long as I don't copy these, I would be able to use the core gameplay, right? What about gameboard designs? I have always wondered about this, and searching didn't show too many hits on the subject(Maybe just used the wrong search words) *Looking at a non-commercial end* Hoping for good answers =)

After you read this forum's FAQ, and this:
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/faq61.htm
if your question still hasn't been answered, go ahead and rephrase it.
(You don't appear to have yet read this forum's FAQ and the above cited article.)

But let's just consider Monopoly for a moment. What is your plan for reproducing Monopoly (as one example) without violating any trademarks?

Ok, I'll try to put the question differently(Thanks for the link tho, it answered some of the question, and the site itself is interesting ;) )

What I want to know is, are game rules themself protected? I can't imagine that someone owns the rights to games that seemingly everyone who have ever touched a deck of cards, or played a board game, knows about. Somebody owns the rights to Monopoly as a game name, but how deep does that go? Do they own the rights to the game board itself, do they own the rights to a game containing places for sale.
What about Poker? Do they own the rights to the way the cards are dealt, The rights to the winning conditions?

Do only games with a certain amonut of complexity have patents or licensed bound to them? I can't imagine Three in a row having a license bound to it, or else everyone with a piece of paper and a pen would have to pay for playing it at school for example.

For example: If I were to include game that had a board with multiple path's to take, and one dice that would need to be rolled. It would contain some spaces with buildings or even planets that could be bought and traded with other players.
The winning player would be the one with the most money after a number of rounds. Would this conflict with the game Monopoly?

I'm sorry if I can't get my point out exaclty, I'm just having trouble understanding what my options are.

I painted you an example and I think you should follow up on it.
How would you make Monopoly, for instance? What exactly would you do? Try that, maybe that'll help illustrate the situation for you.
BTW, did you read what this forum's FAQ says on this subject yet?

Quote: Original post by wildex999
What about Poker? Do they own the rights to the way the cards are dealt, The rights to the winning conditions?

Poker is a kind of communal game that has blossomed from grimy criminal fingers, blood-stained money, riverboat tricksters, and sinister con-men. It, of course, is an American game, but it has roots in other games from Europe and the Middle East which were brought to America; these games introduced the concept of betting on yr position relative to yr supposition of yr opponent's position. It evolved into the many variations that we see today.

So, like chess, no one owns this game. It was crafted by the rugged panoply of American history. Feel free to use any common variation of poker: hold 'em, stud, omaha, 2-7 triple draw, badugi, pineapple, draw, and all the crazy home game variants. It is a collective game.

However, you should note that there are some variations of poker like, Texas Hold 'Em Bonus that is owned and licensed by a gaming company. This is a casino table game; that is the player is playing on short odds against the house, rather than player versus the other players minus the house vig. This, of course, would be a no, no.

And obviously Monopoly is a no-no too. Be careful about simply copying game play too; I've ready about some copy infringement cases that result when people copied game play. For example, there is one on going with Tetris versus Blockles ( I believe it's called ).