Hi gang,

I have a question. If someone wanted to create a game that used some of the poker games that are out there, how would they find out if they are patented, TM'd or have copyrights?

The books I find on poker games, don't mention any copyrights or anything else on the games. Also there are tons of sites with the rules, and they don't mention anything protecting them. So is there any restrictions on their use. And how should I go about finding out for sure?

Thanks for the help everyone.

I believe many of the well-known poker variants (5 Card Stud, Texas Hold 'em, Lowball, etc) have been around long enough to be in the public domain (and probably were never copyrighted/patented anyway). And as long as you don't call your game Hoyle's Texas Hold 'em or Binion's Poker Suite, you'll steer clear of any trademark issues. This is because, according to my understanding of trademark/copyright law, that you cannot trademark names that are in the public domain (i.e., you cannot tm "Five Card Stud", though you can tm "Cartman's Five Card Stud").

What about the newer games like Chicago, Baseball, and Python? These are mentioned on many poker web sites without any credits given. Are these games also in the same arena?

I would guess that those are also okay, but your best bet would be to do a trademark/patent search at the US Patent and Trademark Office website. (http://www.uspto.gov)

You really can't patent this, it would be more of a trademark issue. After talking it over with several other developers, it's really not worth registering a trademark with a game that's not a phenomenal seller. It costs several hundred dollars and doesn't do much compared to just passively trademarking it (ala just showing that you had used the term first and used it consistently). Suing others for infringement on your game is really tough as they can tweak it just a bit and make it into something different. Every now and then, you can win, but frankly it's not worth it.