copyrighting... please dont lock this :)

dougee19

okay, as ridicilious as this may sounds im after thinking up of a great idea in relation to poker.. im not going to write any details yet in case they are stolen etc, and i want to get it copyrighted. can anyone tell me what the story with copyrighting in poker is

im assuming there is some since fulltilt have knockout tournies and noone else does, and pokerstars have shootouts and noone else does

can someone please let me know of what i can do to copyright an idea. i know there are a lot of people high up on ppp and gjp who are on here so if you could help i would really be grateful


please dont lock. its not off topic really and im not going to waffle on, just really want some assistance


EDIT: maybe should have been put in rules forum, put somewhere instead of deleting please

AdMMM

Drunk on a Friday night? For shame!

JP Poker

Hi Dougee,

I think if you have a unique idea that you want to get a patent for it in Ireland. Then you need to go the Companies Registration Office. It used to be £60 (if remember correctly) but that was a few years ago.

www.cro.ie

Good luck

MrJoeSoap

|.Murderer.| wrote: »

Drunk on a Friday night? For shame!

What is this country coming to?

dougee19

JP Poker wrote: »

Hi Dougee,

I think if you have a unique idea that you want to get a patent for it in Ireland. Then you need to go the Companies Registration Office. It used to be £60 (if remember correctly) but that was a few years ago.

www.cro.ie

Good luck

thanks, am definately going to go to this, havent seen this done before on any poker sites. just wondering if they'll pay me to have it...

when you say registered for ireland does that mean i have to sell it to an irish company?

RoundTower

if you have an idea that can be copyrighted, just write it down and keep a record of it. Send a copy of it to your lawyer or post it on boards if you want to make doubly sure and have a backup in case someone challenges you. Really, you don't need anything more.

Mellor

Regarding shoot-outs and knock outs, etc,
I don't think Stars or FT have them copyrighted. They just run them. They were around before online poker, don't think they could copyright them

THEIRISHMOB

dougee19 wrote: »

okay, as ridicilious as this may sounds im after thinking up of a great idea in relation to poker.. im not going to write any details yet in case they are stolen etc, and i want to get it copyrighted. can anyone tell me what the story with copyrighting in poker is

im assuming there is some since fulltilt have knockout tournies and noone else does, and pokerstars have shootouts and noone else does

can someone please let me know of what i can do to copyright an idea. i know there are a lot of people high up on ppp and gjp who are on here so if you could help i would really be grateful


please dont lock. its not off topic really and im not going to waffle on, just really want some assistance


EDIT: maybe should have been put in rules forum, put somewhere instead of deleting please

You need to get in contact with a local enterprize board in your area, they will put u in contact with a patent attorney. you can talk freely with him and he will give you all the advice you need about your idea and how to progress with it.

Best of luck with it.

Flushdraw

RoundTower wrote: »

if you have an idea that can be copyrighted, just write it down and keep a record of it. Send a copy of it to your lawyer or post it on boards if you want to make doubly sure and have a backup in case someone challenges you. Really, you don't need anything more.

Alternatively post it to yourself in a registered envelope that you have to sign for. Obviously dont say "Wow what could this be" and open it when it arrives!

ttilting

Using the CRO or Posting it to yourself or solicitor would be a waste of time. (the latter in particular is a myth)

You could file for a world wide patent at an annual cost of around e100,000 per annum (minimum). Plus the costs of any court cases that you need to bring to should anyone breach your patent.....

It looks like you're on to a looser im afraid. It doesn't seem logical to want to protect 'your' Idea for a way of playing an existing game ? ?

I mean Do you think the person who created the game of soccer gets a feckin Euro every time someone play it in the local park !

You can't copyright a way of playing a game.

Even If I wanted to create my own version of monopoly and call it something else, there would be no real legal problem, as long as I did my homework! !

Well done on the Idea and all, , , and If you have loads of ideas like this you should apply for a job in one of these companies....

But generally I find . . . that when someone comes up with a new idea ... and there first thought is '' how much money can I get out of this '' its doomed to failure,,, and will waste lots of their time along the way.

Regards
And best of luck.

Mellor

ttilting wrote: »

You can't copyright a way of playing a game.

Even If I wanted to create my own version of monopoly and call it something else, there would be no real legal problem, as long as I did my homework! !

Firstly you can copyright a game. Countless games are or were copyrighted. Examples are the games were the physical parts of the game are copyrighted.


You wouldn't be able to make your own version of monopoly, least not legally. Unless it was changed alot, therefor not the same game.

OP was clearly refering to software, which of course is easily copyrighted

ttilting

Mellor wrote: »

Firstly you can copyright a game. Countless games are or were copyrighted. Examples are the games were the physical parts of the game are copyrighted.

Physical parts of the game ??? why would that be relevant to the OP? this is about poker?

Mellor wrote: »

You wouldn't be able to make your own version of monopoly, least not legally. Unless it was changed alot, therefor not the same game.

You've obviously never encoutered G'O FOR BROKE !' and countless other rip-offs. .. but you're right that board games are a bad example. The OP is talking about a poker variation.... so he has virtually NO scope for claiming ''intelectual property'', unless he changes the rules, hand-ranks etc,,,, even then he would struggle.

Mellor wrote: »

OP was clearly refering to software, which of course is easily copyrighted

This was not made clear in the post, and I do not believe that is what he was reffering to.

If this is the case and the OP was suggesting a way of playing poker not phisically possible in say.... a card room, , , then he ''may'' be able to claim it as intelectual property

Mr. Flibble

I remember reading about some company who made a variation of holdem with an extra card which they claimed couldn't be copied. Can't remember where I read it or what came of it. Anyone know?

Ste05

You can't copyright an idea.

I've moved this to Legal Discussion. You might get better responses there.

Ste05

dermot_sheehan

Copyright only protects the expression of an idea and not the idea itself, section 17(2) and 17(3) copyright act 2000

(2) Copyright subsists, in accordance with this Act, in—


(a) original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works,


(b) sound recordings, films, broadcasts or cable programmes,


(c) the typographical arrangement of published editions, and


(d) original databases.


(3) Copyright protection shall not extend to the ideas and principles which underlie any element of a work, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts and, in respect of original databases, shall not extend to their contents and is without prejudice to any rights subsisting in those contents.

What you need to protect and idea is a patent, unfortunatly your idea does not seem to be patentable: section 9 patents act 1992

An invention shall be patentable under this Part if it is susceptible of industrial application, is new and involves an inventive step.


(2) Any of the following in particular shall not be regarded as an invention within the meaning of subsection (1):


( a ) a discovery, a scientific theory or a mathematical method,


( b ) an aesthetic creation,


( c ) a scheme, rule or method for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business, or a program for a computer,


( d ) the presentation of information.

Mr. Flibble

Haven't algorithms been patented? Couldn't you argue an algorithm is software?

dermot_sheehan

In the U.S. they have different rules, and amongst other things allow the patenting of business ideas,

this isnt allowed in europe.

hotspur

Thank God someone finally pointed out that it isn't copyrighting that you are after. Out of interest Dougee here is a list of recent US poker patents:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/search-results.html?search=poker&imageField2.x=0&imageField2.y=0

You might be better off 1st of all sharing the idea with someone who knows the industry to see if it is even an idea worth ever thinking about again. I have had several people talk to me about great ideas for things they would like to protect, and after much coaxing it out of them it has always been utterly retarded.

Tom Young

Slightly off point: It drives me mad that registering patents in Ireland is such a problem.

I saw a study a few years ago by Harvard Prof Micheal Porter, he displayed with great interest the (low) levels of Irish and emerging market patents when matched-up with the likes of the US and certain Asian countries.

Personally the entire area needs reform here, to make R&D more interesting, accessable and achievable in Ireland.

fl&sh

one thing worth remembering is,do not reveal you idea to anyone and i mean anyone other than a patent attourney or it becomes public knowledge which can't be patented.

you'll find all the info you need here.

http://www.patentsoffice.ie/en/homepage.aspx