[casual_games] Gameplay patents

[Elmlish Q. Woods]

Patents on game play are over the top pointless, in my opinion.  Copyright
and Trademark protect the most valuable aspects of a game: the look and
feel. If a copycat does make a direct ripoff of your game you have the
ability to protect your "I.P."  Do you think it would have improved the
movie industry to patent Romantic Comedies? I believe it's fairly reasonable
to say that it wouldn't have. (though some would argue this point with the
quality of romantic comedies today)

Could you imagine patenting silly walks, or ways of swinging, or ways of
jumping rope? I believe I heard a story about someone attempting to patent a
way of swinging sideways, but I don't know what ever came of it.

Small iterations and riffs on a popular genre are how people and the culture
they create naturally work.

I've heard of many cases where the first to develop something isn't, in the
end, the one who steals the imagination of the people and comes to "own" the
idea. It's often the  second to market who copies the first and refines the
rough idea into something marketable who succeeds. If the idea were locked
down with the first party, then it may have died on the vine and the world
may never have benefited from the expansion on and refinement of this great
idea.

~Israel




On 2/14/07, Adam Martin <adam.m.s.martin at googlemail.com> wrote:

>

> On 14/02/07, Tom Hubina <tomh at mofactor.com> wrote:

> > We _should_ be able to patent UNIQUE game play. We _should_ be able to

> > leverage some form of legal protection to stem the tide of rampant

> copycats

> > that is absolutely destroying the casual games industry (buy me a drink

> at

> > GDC and I'll talk your ear off about this topic). However, the current

>

> I'll bite. Where/when can I find you? :)

>

> I'll wager that the much faster and more appropriate solution to the

> copycat problem is for the retail market to improve. My turn at a

> provocative statement until GDC: claiming that the ease of cloning

> games is destroying the casual games industry is like claiming that

> the second-hand games market is destroying the mainstream games

> industry - both are merely the customers showing that the industry has

> fundamentally misunderstood what their market actually wants, or has

> fundamentally failed to satisfy the needs effectively.

>

> Adam

> _______________________________________________

> Casual_Games mailing list

> Casual_Games at igda.org

> http://www.igda.org/casual-subscribe

> Archive: http://www.igda.org/casual-subscribe

> Archive Search:

> http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=010373383720242846960%3Az3tdwggxil8

> List FAQ:

> http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Casual_Games_SIG/Casual_Games_List_FAQ

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/casual_games/attachments/20070214/7f987f96/attachment.htm