October 2006 Board and Card Game Patents

Card game for displaying images based on sound recognition - Unless I'm mistaken, they claim to have perfected a system of having your online avatar's face and movement reflect your own vocal intonations and movement, thereby giving your avatar "expression". The intent of the invention appears to be to create a better online poker game.

Board game - A waterproof board game whose intention is to make swim practice more interesting.

Card game - A bet against the house poker game that includes a joker, which may be played as an ace or to complete a straight flush.

World geography and culture based game and method - A board game that teaches different cultures. Visit each country, answer trivia, and get your passport stamped.

Board game having magnetically attractive game - A travel board game where magnetized pieces are held between two boards and moved via external magnets??? I think. It also specifies a dice rolling game to go with it.

Game system using game cards and game machine - A game by Nintendo using cards with bar codes and memory chips.

Playing cards and method for playing card games therewith - A game of poker using three cards in a row from a Tic-Tac-Toe grid, as well as some specialized decks to also allow you to play blackjack using this method.

Two card poker - A wholly unoriginal two-card poker game, the essential aspect of which is that it "allows" you to deal more hands before having to reshuffle.

Method for playing a casino card game - A poker game: player is dealt three cards, one face up, one face down, and one in his hand. Bets are made on whether the face down card is "between" the face up card and the card in your hand.

Method and apparatus for orthography board game - a word board game like Scrabble, except that you roll the dice after each play to determine your score.

Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a method and an apparatus for play of a word-based board game in which game play among adults and children is independent of a player's skill and vocabulary, and which is equally entertaining for players of all ages, while simultaneously serving as a learning or teaching aid for younger players.

Chess to the second power - Chess 960, where each piece has to be killed twice. Each piece has an identical piece in side of it. After killing a piece, your piece returns to its location and the piece killed gets its second life. If you kill a secondary piece, it is removed as usual.

Racing board game - A racing game with action cards where you have to write down your prediction of the results after looking at your cards.

Role-playing game with interactive cards and game devices, namely in the form of linear and rotary slide rules, novel use of dice, tactical combat, word-based magic, and dynamic attrition - The game storyforge, which appears to be a game system combining RPGs and CCGs.

OCTATRIX.TM. --strategy game apparatus and method of play - An oddly shaped three-dimensional chess game with some extra pieces.

Pattern formation board game - Some sort of board game where each piece you place forms a shape together with other previously placed pieces and nets you points. I just love some of the legalistic language used in these patents; "The present invention includes a board having a play area substantially planar in extent, ..." i.e. a flat board.

Game device and method for playing - Some sort of three-dimensional racing game. What is notable about this one is that he also laments the prevalence of computer games:

With the advent of video games came a decline in games between two or more players competing face-to-face against each other where the object is to defeat the opponent by outwitting him/her. Traditionally this was an important feature of games and such games between two people were a major means of entertainment and social interaction.

Many games today, however, are played by a single player with no other person participating or watching. At the end of the game the player receives a "score" for the points he/she has accumulated during the game. An opponent or the original player then tries to match or beat the original player's score. There is no player-to-player real-time opposition.

And claims his patented game will engender a rediscovery of board gaming, as opposed to video gaming:

It is a further object of this invention to provide a game device and games that refocus game-playing on social interaction and strategic and tactical moves to outwit the opponent by making the game device more challenging and attractive.

[Management training] game activity - A team building game that involves stacking nested boxes and a roll-and-move trivia game. I think it's by this company.

Smart table card hand identification method and apparatus - An electronic table that can read each card being dealt to players and each card being discarded, the intent of which is to help prevent fraud. I don't know about you, but it sounds like this will do exactly the opposite.

Yehuda

As a bonus, here is a patent from 2004:

System for providing entertainment and enhancing human relationships:

A method or system by which two or more people can improve communication, understanding and/or relationships. The persons engage in a game or other activity where there are triggering events, such as completing a hand of a game of cards, or expiration of a time period. When there is a triggering event, one person selects an item of information at random (e.g. by drawing a card from a stack of information cards). The person reads the information and expresses a thought relating to the same. The other participants are then also able to comment. If this discussion becomes objectionable in some way, one of the participants can activate a "defuser" to either divert the line of discussion or terminate the discussion, after which the activity phase (e.g. a card game, a counseling session, etc.) is continued.

And God rested.