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From: drd@siia.mv.com (David Dick)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Legal Question
Message-ID: <1990Jul9.164219.27369@siia.mv.com>
Date: 9 Jul 90 16:42:19 GMT
References: <191100007@trsvax>
Organization: Software Innovations, Inc.
Lines: 19

In <191100007@trsvax> reyn@trsvax.UUCP writes:


>This seems to be in line with this groups interests, so here goes ...

>Can the rules of a game be copyrighted or patented?

>The rules of a game could be considered to be the algorithm by which it is
>played.  Algorithms, as such, are not patentable.

Unfortunately, the Patent Office seems to have forgotten this
recently.  The first example, I think, was the patent granted
to Merill-Lynch for the way their "Cash Management Account" 
(a scheme for automatically sweeping money into interest-bearing 
accounts, etc.) worked.  Another example may be the patent
Apple has on the way their graphic "regions" work.

David Dick
Software Innovations, Inc. [the Software Moving Company (sm)]