Can I Patent a Board Game? Episode 130

Patenting Unique Types of Inventions

I’m going to have a series of episodes about patenting certain kinds of things that maybe you didn’t know were patentable—or if they are patentable, what exactly you’re patenting about them. In this episode, I’m going to be talking about board games.

Patenting Board Game Components

There are a couple of different things that are patentable about board games. One is the rules—or, really, the method—of playing a game. Remember, I talked a long time ago about how patents can be for physical objects, or they can also be for methods. Maybe an oil company has a new method of refining oil that improves the quality of the final product. They could get a patent on that. If you think about it, board games also have methods.

You can patent the board game itself. There could be lots of ways to do this, and it depends on the game. If your game has certain kinds of pieces, you might patent the combination of pieces and dice and how they look. One example is U.S. Patent No. 8,657,289, and it’s called “Game Combining Checkers, Chess, and Dice.”

Example: Game Combining Checkers, Chess, and Dice

If you look at the claims, what did they say their invention was? There are seven parts:

First is a plurality of game pieces for each player. Okay, that’s pretty standard for any type of game.

A king piece for each player. So far, it sounds like chess, where each player has a king piece.

A first die having a plurality of chess piece designations. That’s actually new—I’ve never seen a die with chess piece designations. Usually, we see dots on dice.

Then they have a second die having indicia for numbers 1–6. That’s a common die. You can see how they claimed it broadly, which is really good. They didn’t say “a die having numbers 1–6,” because that would require the die to have actual numbers on it. But by saying “indicia for numbers 1–6,” it covers dice with numbers and dice that have dots.

Next is a board for gameplay. That’s nothing new—just that you need a board.

The sixth part is that the king piece has a king designation on one side, visible when placed on the reverse side of a standard checker. So you can imagine there’s a checker, and on one side, there’s an image of a king piece.

And the seventh and final part is that each of the plurality of game pieces—except for the king piece—appears the same.

That’s it. I’ve simplified the claims a little bit, but if you want to simplify it even more, what they claimed is a board game that has a board, a special kind of dice, and special kinds of pieces with particular characteristics.

Patenting Game Rules and Methods of Play

That’s one way of getting a patent on a board game. Another way is patenting the rules of the game—such as how something is scored. If you want to take a look at one of these, you can search for U.S. Patent 5,374,065, titled Method of Playing a Word-Forming Board Game.

If you look at the first claim, it says—and I’m summarizing—a method of playing a language-building game utilizing a grid-marked playing board, playing tiles having letters of the alphabet, and a scoring sheet. The method comprises the steps of… and then they list 27 steps.

I’m not going to tell you each of the 27 steps—that would take too long. But some of the steps involve declaring words, recording the words, scoring words, placing tiles down, and finally, declaring a winner. It sounds a little bit like Scrabble, but the rules and board are different.

The Monopoly Patent

Probably one of the most famous board games is Monopoly, and it received a patent that has long since expired because the patent was issued in 1935. If you want to look it up, it’s U.S. Patent Number 2,026,082. There was a lot of controversy regarding this game, and if you’re interested, just look up the history of Monopoly.

If you look at that patent, what they got a patent for was a board game having a board that has a path where the spaces are designated by position or color to constitute a distinguishable group. The board has indications of rentals required by opponent players, where the rentals are subject to increase by the acquisition of an additional space in the same group. This makes it possible for the possessor to exact greater payments or penalties from any opponent resting or trespassing on it.

There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s one of the claims they got.

Design Patents for Board Games

Another thing you can get a patent on is the design of your board game—if you apply for a design patent. Design patents protect the look of your invention. So if your board has a unique appearance, you can get a patent on that.

Remember, if someone makes the same game but just changes the board’s appearance, they wouldn’t be infringing your design patent.

Patent Requirements Still Apply

The same rules for patenting a board game apply as for other inventions—it must be new, useful, and non-obvious. The “useful” part is easy. The “new” part is also fairly easy. The “non-obvious” part is usually the main hurdle.

If you just came up with a Scrabble game and changed the values of the letters, you’re not going to get a patent on that. Yes, it’s new, but it would be considered obvious to change point values of letters compared to the original.

Strategies for Protecting a Board Game

There are all kinds of different strategies to protect your board game. Maybe patents are the right approach—it could be a utility or a design patent. You might just want to trademark the name. You might want to copyright the design of the board and the instructions.

If you’re going the utility patent route, you want to think about what is the minimum amount that makes your game unique and non-obvious. Also, think of alternative ways it might be played—because maybe you came up with a method of playing, but someone else could take the general concept and come up with a new way of playing it or just change a couple of pieces on the board so they’re not infringing.

There’s a lot of work and planning involved in getting the broadest protection for your board game.

I’m Adam Diament, and until next time—keep on inventing.