Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 11:02:30 01/07/04
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On January 07, 2004 at 12:38:51, Ed Trice wrote: >Hello Dr. Hyatt, > >> >>I don't believe a license is necessary to write a program to _play_ this game, >>any more than I need a license to write a program to play monopoly. > >That is because Monopoly is now beyond the 16 year umbrella of patent >protection, while Gothic Chess is protected until 2019. The monopoly patent had >no provisions for an electronic representation, while the Gothic Chess patent >explicitly covers a programatic implementation as well. > Then your patent has a basic flaw.. You can patent a "thing". You can patent "a process". You can't patent something like "breathing" or "playing a game" however... I don't quite know why you are trying to do this since the game is never going to be main-stream. In fact, your patent statements will effectively kill it for all time anyway... >< I can't manufacture a game and sell it, as several have found when Parker >Brothers >>took them to court, but clearly I can play the game once I see it, without >>having the real board or anything else handy. > >All true. > >>Ditto for this variant called "Gothic Chess". I don't see how you would >>deal with someone that simply writes a program to play your "game". He is >>not infringing on the patent whatsoever by doing so... > >It is because a software faciliatation is using the METHOD of playing the game >in order to play the game on your computer. Trust me, I had many hours of >conversations regarding this with different law firms before even applying for >the patent. > >If I was asking for $1000 for a license, I could understand the concerns, but it >is $1. Doesn't matter. You have made it a dead issue already. Just watch the "license requests" come rolling in. :)
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