I would love to see this genre continue to develop, IMHO the use of cards for these types of games could be developed more than just a close copy like we have here.

As for the IP, it really is the cards that cause the issue for me. I have seen enough examples on both sides of a trademark issue to realize that it would be difficult to make any claim in a court. The smallest changes will be argued as enough difference to reduce confusion. I still believe that a player could likely buy cards for one game, thinking they were for the other, and if that happens to a single player that is bad for both games.

- Copyright protects the words and pictures. If the game has a different name and pictures, and the rules were rewritten, no problem.

- Trademark protects the names, distinctive phrases, colors, and patterns, and so on. The general rule is that if an idiot in a hurry wouldn’t confuse the two, and it’s not deliberately trying to confuse the two, then no problem.

- Patents protect processes and mechanisms. It’s expensive and takes a few years, but you could protect specific non-obvious game designs and play with a patent, although most people (other than casinos) don’t bother. And it’s hard to win a patent victory.

More importantly, none of these cover user loyatly and brand trust, which is given or taken away by people, such as yourselves, who don’t like game designers copying others too closely. That’s up to you to decide.

Yehuda

Fyi, I found your blog through the blog list at boardgamegeek.com: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Gaming_Blogs

You are absolutely right. What we have is alot like Onfolio was for helping you keep all your web stuff organized, PLUS social features for sharing collections, or discovering public collections, PLUS the ability to add your comments and ratings (etc.) to public collections to create the community effect.

For those who want to keep everything private, they can. For those who want to share some of their stuff with specific people or groups (or with everyone), they can do that too.

As a desktop app (vs. a web app) we can do alot of cool things in terms of usability, performance, offline access, etc.

It’s alot like iTunes for all your web stuff.

Please check it out. Here’s a link to private beta that can be used 20 times. So for you and 19 (lucky) readers, you can download it and use it. Please let us know what you think, and any suggestions for improving it!

http://aardwolf.eluma.com/~content/invitations/retrieve.php?guid=47e11e7d47c07

Thanks!

Joe Lichtenberg
http://www.eluma.com

Bill: My screen does a bit of a flicker when I wake it up or log in for the first time, but the resolution does not change.

My Wireless HAD been working great till earlier this week. It is now experiencing the some massive, and thus far unexplained slow downs. Still working through the numerous postings on the net to find a resolution.

My new 1420 as an annoying habit of changing screen resolution upon waking from sleep mode. Does your machine do that? Do you have any suggestions for keeping it from happening?

Otherwise I too am very happy with the 1420. It’s wireless capability seems flawless.

Thanks,