Should you patent a board game?

A board game patent is a legal protection for a board game used to help prevent others from profiting illicitly from your work. By patenting your game, you make it illegal for others to simply resell your idea under their own label without seeking your permission.

How do you legally protect a board game?

How do you patent an idea for a board game?

To receive a patent on your board game, you must file a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (https://www.uspto.gov/). The patent application should include an Abstract to broadly describe the game.

What board games are patented?

Some notable games that have been patented include Monopoly², Magic: The Gathering³, Life⁴, Battleship⁵, and Scrabble⁶. Design patents are also a way to protect the ornamental aspects of a game, such as the shape and color of playing pieces, so long as they are not functional or do not serve a utility in the game.

How much does it cost to patent a game?

For an individual, however, the costs will vary considerably depending on the complexity of the game, the number of claims, and the complexity of the invention. A simple invention can cost as little as $3,000, while a more complex invention can cost as much as $7000.

Can I Get a Patent on a Board Game I Invented? I Want to Protect My Board Game Invention Idea!

How to make a board game to sell?

Can I sell my idea without a patent?

No. You are not required to obtain a patent in order to sell a product or service embodying your invention. Many products and services are sold that are not patented. A U.S. patent provides the right to stop others from making marketing, selling, or importing your invention in the United States.

Can I sell my idea for a game?

Inquire with the company first. Ask them if they want to hear your idea and offer to sign an NDA (nondisclosure agreement). If you're not interested in money or lawsuits, tell them in writing they can have your idea no strings attached if they want to use it. Don't just send the idea in unsolicited.

Can you sell an idea with a patent?

There are a few ways you can generate a profit from your idea. A patent is an important document which grants ownership to an invention. However, simply owning a patent won't generate a dime for the inventor. To profit from your idea, you must sell the patent, license usage rights, or market the product yourself.

How do you patent and sell a board game?

Copyrights and Design Patent – Work with a patent attorney to register your game board designs under Design Patent and copyright law. this will cover the actual design of the board. A Design Patent will enable you to exclude others from making, selling, or using your patented board design for a period of 14 years.

What parts of a board game are copyrighted?

As a general rule, the rules, boards, artwork, and other aesthetic or literary elements to a game are copyrightable and protected as such. These protected elements are referred to as the “theme” of the game. Distinct from the “theme” of the game are the game mechanics, which cannot be copyrighted.

How do I protect my board game from being copied?

Trademark. A trademark can protect the name and other aspects of a board game. Trademarks serve to identify the source of a particular product or service and to distinguish the products of one seller from those of others in the marketplace.

How often do patents get rejected?

Approximately 90% of utility patent applications will get rejected. Utility applications often receive multiple patent rejections. So do not be disappointed. Rejections are the norm for utility patents.

What ideas Cannot be patented?

What percentage of patents make money?

Only a very small percentage of patents make it to market, and only 3% of patents ever make any money. This is why you should never make patents your top priority. Keep in mind that patents are not cheap. A utility patent will cost you at least $10,000 and can take a year or more to complete.

How do I patent my game?

What to do if you have an idea for a game?

Can you sell games made in scratch?

Print. Yes: Your Scratch project is your creation. But keep in mind that once you share your project on the Scratch website, everyone is free to download, remix, and reuse the project based on the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

When should I patent my idea?

Accordingly, it is typically best to develop a product as much as possible before filing a first patent application. To summarize so far, you should wait to file your first patent application as long as possible, but be sure to file before a first public disclosure, public use, or offer for sale.

What happens if you don't patent your idea?

Zero possibility of licensing or selling technology

Patenting gives you official ownership of your innovation. You can then charge a license fee to someone who intends to use your technology. However, if you do not patent your invention, licensing and selling may prove to be challenging or impossible.

Does it cost money to patent an idea?

A patent attorney will usually charge between $8,000 and $10,000 for a patent application, but the cost can be higher. In most cases, you should budget between $15,000 and $20,000 to complete the patenting process for your invention.

How profitable is making a board game?

How much profit can a board game company make? A successful board game business can make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If a game sells for $30 per copy, selling just 1,000 games would generate a revenue of $30,000. In some cases, businesses are much more successful than this.

Can you get a patent on a board game?

A patent covers an “invention,” a broad category covering both physical objects and more abstract methods. Patents definitely cover processes, and since board games are at an innermost level processes for entertainment, they are eminently patentable, so long as they meet the general requirements for patentability.

Are 97% of patents worthless?

Around 97% of patents are never litigated because they are either not commercially viable (not useful), thus not infringed, or not commercially valuable, thus damages are too small to return the cost of litigation.