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Anaraxes · 01-29-2023, 07:19 PM

Game mechanics cannot be copyrighted, but they can be (and have been) patented. The rules text itself, the "expression" of those mechanics, can be copyrighted, which protects that expression, but doesn't protect the mechanics. The way the game looks -- trade dress, logos, particular symbols like the card tap symbol in MtG, the funky symbols on FFG's Star Wars/Genesys dice -- can be trademarked.

Compare with a recipe. Recipes themselves cannot be copyrighted. That's one reason you see recipe sites and food bloggers always going on for paragraphs about how they used to feel when their mother made some item. That expressive stuff that's not part of the recipe can be copyrighted. But processes for producing food, just like processes for producing nearly anything, can be patented.

Patents for game mechanics have the same requirements as other patents -- novel and nonobvious to a game designer of ordinary skill in the art.

01-29-2023, 07:19 PM	#9
Anaraxes Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: Does anyone even, like, own rules?? Game mechanics cannot be copyrighted, but they can be (and have been) patented. The rules text itself, the "expression" of those mechanics, can be copyrighted, which protects that expression, but doesn't protect the mechanics. The way the game looks -- trade dress, logos, particular symbols like the card tap symbol in MtG, the funky symbols on FFG's Star Wars/Genesys dice -- can be trademarked. Compare with a recipe. Recipes themselves cannot be copyrighted. That's one reason you see recipe sites and food bloggers always going on for paragraphs about how they used to feel when their mother made some item. That expressive stuff that's not part of the recipe can be copyrighted. But processes for producing food, just like processes for producing nearly anything, can be patented. Patents for game mechanics have the same requirements as other patents -- novel and nonobvious to a game designer of ordinary skill in the art.