2015-05-22

Game patents

One of those questions that comes up all the time on game design forums is about how to protect intellectual property and prevent someone stealing your idea.  The often dry, but always interesting Lewis Pulsipher has just released one of his talks about game design, this time on the subject of patents for games.  He points out the cost of acquiring a patent, the additional cost of maintaining and defending it, as long as the likelihood of a court ruling it invalid, and the average amount of money earned from a game (his figures are from video games, but appear to be broadly applicable to board games too), and concludes that patents are for suckers.

I think his closing comment sums things up very nicely: "If you have spent money to get a patent, I am sorry, you have screwed up."

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