November Board and Card Game Patents

Board game - The design of a word based board game called "Giving Thanks" by Keith Johnson.

Gaming machines with board game theme - Monopoly slots. I'm fairly sure I covered something just like this a year or two ago. And I'm not sure why a machine needs patent protection for such an obvious implementation.

Method of playing a bonus wager - After playing a game of Blackjack or some such, the players' cards are used to form a poker hand.

Interactive sporting event game - A card game to be played while watching a sporting event. Occurrences in the sporting event affect the card game somehow.

Gift exchange game - White elephant is a well-known gift exchange system used at large parties, where each player brings a wrapped gift to a party, and then attendees, one by one, take one of the gifts without knowing what is inside the wrapping.

This patent describes a white elephant system, where the order of the taking of the gifts is decided by dice rolling. I kid you not. An additional implementation is given where, after presents have been unwrapped, attendees roll dice again to steal gifts from each other.

Chess game piece - The design of this chess piece:

Poker card game - Texas Hold 'Em has a problem:

Although it is a game requiring skills and experience, like most other card games, Texas Hold 'Em depends on probabilities of poker hands for excitement and action. Betting strategies can be developed based on the chance a player can form a poker hand as high as possible using their pocket cards and communal cards. When the chance to form a good poker hand is low, players tend to give up the game early, resulting in poor table action and low payoff.

This patent "solves" the problem by attempting to patent Texas Hold 'Em with any deck that has four suits but doesn't have 13 cards in each suit (e.g. European decks, and so on).

Leaving aside the fact that I can't see how this solves the problem, does this guy really think that he can patent Texas Hold 'Em with a 40 card deck? Someone tell me what I'm missing here.

TRI board game - The abstract to this one is worth reading. Three times.

A board game device having a plurality of tri-squares, four corners and a diagonally arranged border row of eight tri-squares of a conspicuous hue extending between two corners of the board and dividing the board into two triangular sections, with a plurality of parallel rows with the center row thereof perpendicular to the border row, having a contrasting hue on different sides of the border, with proximal and distal ends thereof forming player positions at the other corner wherein each game piece has at least a tetrahedron first body member.

Nope. I still don't get it.

Ah, here's a picture of the board:



The game combines various mechanics of strategy, tactics and chance. There's money for some reason; I think captured pieces give you money. And there are dice for some reason, but not to select which pieces you move. You can move a piece the height of the piece, or move additional times if you land of your own piece. I don't get the rest of the game, but it looks interesting enough.

The game is by Anthony Rollando Robinson.

Golf board game - OK, there have been other golf board games. What does this one add?

The general purpose of the present golf board game, described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a golf board game which has many novel features that result in a golf board game which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by prior art, either alone or in combination thereof.

Do tell.

After looking at the game, I can't see exactly how the game does this. It's a golf game with dice. Actually, it's got a resolution table, crossing the die roll against the club chosen, which will make old-time war-gamers a little nostalgic.

One notable aim of the game is "to promote good manners and teach golf etiquette to players." I didn't see how this was accomplished.

Systems, methods and articles to facilitate playing card games - A complicated card carousel and computer system that can generate a random or psuedo-random card shuffle and then physically assign the cards according to its "shuffle". The idea being a) that cards and statistics can be tracked, and b) the system can raise or lower the odds when it, or the controller, feels like it. Or even assign a specific card, I believe.

I'm not sure how this solves the problem laid out by the patent: "Casinos and other gaming establishments are continually looking for ways to make gaming fresher and more exciting for their patrons. For example, many casinos offer the ability to place bonus wagers and/or progressive wagers. New approaches to varying existing card games are highly desirable."

Wall decoration and game apparatus - A cribbage board on the backside of a wall-mounted fish. Also has a compartment for the pegs.