Is anyone here familiar with patent law?
I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Ed Trice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Trice) and was a bit confused to see that it said that he invented Gothic Chess in 2000. My research strongly suggests that it was invented around 1998.
I couldn't think of any reason why Mr Trice would claim that Gothic Chess was invented two years after it was until I started thinking about his patent (http://tinyurl.com/yrfgcf) which was filed on 16th May, 2001 and granted on 19th November, 2002.
I Googled a bit and found the following article on the Basics of US Patent Law: http://www.ipfrontline.com/depts/article.asp?id=15052&deptid=2
It contains the following:
Not eligible for Patentability
An invention is not considered new or novel if the same were on sale for more than a year before the filing date of patent application. Selling the invention for testing deprived it of the novelty. Even making an offer to sell or making a contract of sale for the future is fatal to novelty of the invention and it shall not patented.
So does this mean that if Gothic Chess was played publicly before 16th May, 2000 (a year before the date that the patent application was filed) then the patent shouldn't have been allowed?
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Originally posted by Fat LadyI think it's fair to say (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capablanca_chess) that the priciple is several decades older than that. All Mr. Trice has done is move the Capablanca setup around a bit and invent a couple of new names. If that deserves a patent, I'm going to patent Revenge Chess, which is the same as normal chess except that black finally gets the chance to move first.
Is anyone here familiar with patent law?
I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Ed Trice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Trice) and was a bit confused to see that it said that he invented Gothic Chess in 2000. My research strongly suggests that it was invented around 1998.
I couldn't think of any reason why Mr Trice would claim that Gothic Chess was in ...[text shortened]... ttp://tinyurl.com/yrfgcf) which was filed on 16th May, 2001 and granted on 19th November, 2002.
Richard
Originally posted by PawnCloudHunterWell I'll be darned. I never noticed that the setup of the pieces for Gothic Chess had changed.
From 1998-2000 they were playing Capablanca Chess though and just calling it by another name. You can see here http://web.archive.org/web/20030711200636/gothicchess.org/long_answer.html they talk about Capablanca Chess as their first marketing attempt.
Here is an archive of gothicchess.com showing the setup as of April 2001:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010408040610/www.gothicchess.com/how_to_play_setup.html
And here the setup as of November 2001:
http://web.archive.org/web/20011122122747/gothicchess.com/how_to_play_setup.html
And indeed the former seems to be the same as the setup for Capablanca Chess:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capablanca_chess
Gothic Chess sets were clearly for sale more than a year before the patent was filed:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000324231052/www.gothicchess.com/products.html
(this is from March 2000, the patent was filed in April 2001), but the fact that Gothic Chess was exactly the same as Capablanca Chess then is very confusing!
Gothic Chess Association was the name of the company. They were formed to market "Gothic Chess" which was still being researched. Originally this was Capablanca Chess with a new name.
The patent does not have the name "Gothic Chess" on it. It a method of playing an 80-square variant that is the current Gothic Chess setup.
Gothic Chess as it is played today was born in the same year as the patent filing. There was no one year lapse as implied.
Originally posted by PawnCloudHunterAre you saying that this is not a true archive of www.gothicchess.com from March 2000: http://web.archive.org/web/20000324231052/www.gothicchess.com/products.html
Gothic Chess sets were not for sale before December of 2000 so your information is wrong.
Or that gothic chess sets weren't actually for sale, despite the fact that the above page appears to offer them for sale?
It turns out that "Gothic Chess" is not even an original chess variant, but a blatant ripoff of "Capablanca Chess", invented by the eponymous World Champion.
Compare:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capablanca_chess
and
http://www.gothicchess.com/rules.html
Even the names of the "new" pieces in Gothic Chess are exactly the same as those in "Capablanca Chess".
There are a couple of minor differences in the games (such as the starting positions of the "new" pieces), and the more significant difference of "Gothic Chess" being "licenseable" (that is, the "inventor" of "Gothic Chess" wants you to pay him money), while "Capablanca Chess" is completely free.