March Board and Card Game Patents

This month's ideas that were worth thousands of dollars in legal fees and patent filing applications, as well as two to three years of waiting:

Chess game piece - This:



Game system - Bescres, an abstract game pretending to have a laser battle theme.



Chess set for the blind - Including Braille markings on the boards and pieces, and recessions in which to place each piece. The recessions are drilled through to the bottom of the board, so that the pieces can be felt from underneath; I'm not sure why.

The preferred manner of the chess set is to provide two boards, one for each player with two complete sets of pieces. Thus, each player can hold his board in his hand so that the bottom of the board can be felt to take advantage of the lines which are provided thereon.

Card game method and apparatus - A casino game. "A player receives three playing cards. The player arranges the cards in sequence and predicts where in the sequence a fourth card will fall."

Gambling games - The idea is to allow casino players to take on the role of banker once in a while. The casino merely provides the facility and takes an entry fee. Thus bypassing the uneven odds of gambling, and thus possibly allowing the activity to occur in places where gambling is illegal.

Alphabet challenge deck - Yet another card game with letters where you form words. 72 cards, includes 4 jokers and a card that lets you substitute letters in existing words.

System and method for playing a bonus game - When triggered in some other game (it doesn't say when this trigger occurs), you get to play a poker game dealt from 13 cards, all of the same suit.

Set of chess pieces - These:



Which will eventually be available at Play Frontiers, currently a parked domain (by some Israelis).

Casino poker game table that implements play of a casino table poker game - With a title like that, you just know it's going to be a good patent. The abstract doesn't disappoint:

An apparatus and a method of play in the practice of the present invention that are described below. An apparatus supporting the play of a casino table card game according to the present invention may comprise: A playing surface; A card-delivery device; A microprocessor operatively connected to the card-delivery device; Player controlled election identifiers that provide a visible signal of an election; At least two areas for display of at least partial card hands from which only one card hand may be elected for a wagering game by a player; The card-delivery device having at least one sensor thereon for sensing the presence of cards in a delivery area of the card-delivery device from which cards may be removed; The at least one sensor on the card-delivery device providing a signal to the microprocessor that a sensed set of cards has been removed from the delivery area; and in response to the signal, the microprocessor preventing players from entering a new election. The apparatus delivery device is preferably a card-shuffling device. The card-shuffling device may both shuffle cards and create sets of predetermined, preselected numbers of cards to be used in play of a card game. The card-shuffling device may be capable of being programmed to provide sets of cards of different numbers of cards to be used in the play of a card game. The apparatus signal to the microprocessor could comprise a signal that a sensed set of cards has been removed from the delivery area is in response to removal of either a) at least a portion of a player's hand or b) at least a portion of common cards. The signal to the microprocessor that a sensed set of cards has been removed from the delivery area may be in response to removal of at least a portion or all of common cards to be used in play of a game. A method of using this apparatus also constitutes a practice of the present invention.

Got that? It's basically a card shuffler and dealer with some card detection software from Shuffle Master. They have another patent this month for a different card shuffler.

Method and apparatus to play card game - Cards that have their suit or rank on their backs. Thus, some information is known about the cards dealt to other players. From a company called DM Innovations.

Game played using a board and forming words - A strange hybrid game of rolling dice, forming words, and using pegs to keep score.

Board game - Got me. Appears to be something called "The Franchise Game" which looks and plays something like Monopoly. The board is transparent and has slots for inserting the description of each of the spaces, so it might be some kind of DIY board game.

Dice game - A two-player dice game that looks loosely like a sports game. It plays in 16 rounds. The play is as follows:

During each round, each player will roll their die one time. The roll of the die determines the score achieved in each round.

High low series gambling game - A high-low game with subgames.

Card game - A blackjack game played to 33 points, with side bets on the resulting poker hand.

Financial trading game - An electronic game where you buy stocks and then try to sell them at top price as their value randomly fluctuates.

Yehuda