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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.
The case of the wrestler Maxx Payne versus the game Max Payne certainly seems a legitimate case to me. Scott Miller calls the guy a nobody, but he wasn't a nobody back in his day. He was in the WWF. He had t-shirts and other merchandice with his name and likeness on them.
Now, I think that the game having the same name is probably accidental, but that doesn't mean that the game has effectivly prevented this guy from ever using that name again -- a name he had used professionally for years before the game was first announced. In that, I would think that it wasn't necessarilly about greed or stupidity. It might be, but not necessarilly.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
OK... so the other day I called the Patent Office and asked them about how one would challenge a Patent based on the latest DNS Patent fiasco.
/.ers but my Congressman/woman holds "town meetings" about once a year. I went to one and they actually proved somewhat helpful when I needed to get my point across. The key when speaking at these is to not be confrontations, have facts ready to go, and speak to the audience. In speaking to the audience, I mean finding something that will make them nod their heads in aggreement with you. That was you make the issue "hot" to that Congressman/woman. If you seem like a lone wolf with an issue, it won't become one. The Congressman/woman's job it to represent the population and the more that this issue represents, the hotter the issue it will become.
After talking to someone who seemed to discourage me from challenging a Patent that has signifigant prior art ("well it costs a lot of money, etc") he mentioned that the whole basis for a Patent is it's Claims section. If the Claims section is, in fact, something brand new then a patent will go through.
The interesting part is that a challenge to a patent will cost you $2,500 and $8,000+ if you want to have a part in the challenge. It seems to me that Congress should step in and regulate the USPTO as it seems as though they are becoming a potential hinderance to innovation by allowing prior art patents where they should be protecting innovation.
Now I don't know about any other United States based
Don't get pissed, lobby for change. I know we (as in my fellow geeks) like to avoid politics, but we need to start becoming more of a voice of change...
The crazy thing about patents is that you can patent the same old ideas in new domains. Solitaire might have existed before computers, but it's still a valid patent when applied to a version for a computer. Likewise, if the patent is for solitaire on desktop computers then there is room for someone else to get a patent for solitaire for handheld computers. This is how the same old business processes that people have used for years are patentable when applied to the internet.
Now, in this case, it would be interesting to see when the patent was applied for. Can the original poster provide the patent number?