"Ian Edwards" <mendo666 at hotmail.com> writes: > > Wotc is one of the few table top game companies that has a patent, > > they have > >patented the idea of a 'collectible card game' > > Which clearly is assinine, children made a game of trading cards > > long before > >obsure rules were added to the mix. > > Here's how rumors start. WotC did not patent 'collectible card games.' > Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: the Gathering (the first true > CCG), got a patent on the act of 'tapping,' turning a card 90 degrees > clockwise to act as a memory marker that it had been used. He 'gave' > his patent to WotC, so they reap the benefits. Note that Dr. Garfield > is no longer an employee at WotC: he's a freelance game designer. Unfortunately, that technique has been used for probably 50 years in duplicate bridge play. I imagine the patent would be thrown out, if anybody bothered to fight it. But that's horribly expensive, and the presumption is that the patent is valid, the burden of proof is on the other side. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info