Computer Solitaire Patented?

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.

Comments

Looks like patents cover games with ads

[questionlp]

After looking at the abstract for all three of the patents liked in the blog entry:

• 1
• 2
• 3

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.

Re:Maybe the patent office never heard of Wes Cher

[Lemmeoutada Collecti]

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.