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Computer Solitaire Patented?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the euchre-and-cribbage-proceed-with-caution dept.

Sadburger writes "Saw this over on GameDev: 'Thomas Warfield of Pretty Good Solitaire is reporting in his most recent blog that: 'My company has received the following letter from a law firm claiming to have a client that has patented computer solitaire. And by extension, all computer card games. I am not kidding.' Patent law strikes again...' Anyone know a good patent lawyer?" Someone alert the educational sector, since at least half my programming classes involved solitaire, poker, or blackjack.

5 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. semi-dupe but in sheep's clothing. by fireduck · · Score: 3, Informative

    we've seen this idiot before. last time he was here, he was C&Ding starchamber.net. Apparently he took our "overly broad" patent comments to heart and has started going after every online game he can find... gotta love it.

  2. Looks like patents cover games with ads by questionlp · · Score: 4, Informative
    After looking at the abstract for all three of the patents liked in the blog entry:

    They cover card games that would also include advertisements and collecting user information and profiles... so this could cover online card games done through MSN Gaming Zone or via Yahoo... amongst other online card gaming sites.
  3. Re:prior art? by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2, Informative
    Careful here- those are standalone programs.

    The patent is on 'multiplayer' versions of solitaire- in other words the players can message each other and there would be a high score table etc.

    There's even a faint chance that this is a 'valid' patent, but I wouldn't bet on it. I mean either there's some prior art (there pretty much has to be, maybe even minitel in France did something like this?), or else it may not be valid because it's too obvious; patents have to novel.

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  4. Re:Maybe the patent office never heard of Wes Cher by Lemmeoutada+Collecti · · Score: 5, Informative

    I used to run Solitaire (Hoyle) on my Tandy 1000 SL/2 with Hard Drive kit. Back in the 80's. And before that, I had Sol on a TRD 80 Model II on the 8" floppy. Talk about prior art, I think there was a version for the VAX.

    --

    You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
  5. Re:Maybe the patent office never heard of Wes Cher by nick_davison · · Score: 2, Informative

    The problem is, that's an offline game. They're specifically patenting providing card games over a network.

    Probably the best case for prior art would go to a MUD with a multiplayer card game in it. Many of them date back well before this patent and a lot of them had coders with too much time on their hands creating cool games.