As a professional game (and video poker) developer I want to say that
Jason is right on the mark. If you feel that you have a Video Poker
idea that is good enough to commercialize then you will need to apply
for a patent.
The patent process itself is quite expensive (usually tens of
thousands of dollars) however you can cover yourself for 1 year with
a "provisional" patent application which can range from a few hundred
dollars to just under one thousand depending on how complicated the
invention is and how much of the burden you can assist with for the
patent attorney.
If you go the provisional route, it is important that you are ready
to aggressively peddle the concept at the point of your filing date.
The filing date starts a 1 year clock at the end of which you need to
have the full application in (tens of thousands of dollars if you are
paying attention) or lose your protection.
It can take a long time to get the interest and strike a deal with a
manufacturer and that year goes quickly while you are trying to get
the pieces into place (I have seen many people abandon their
inventions when they faced this crossroad without a deal).
Our company develops games for IGT. We are happy to evaluate new
games for which a patent application has been submitted. To protect
ourselves as well as the inventor, we generally won't have any
discussion about an idea until a patent application has been filed.
Good luck with your game idea.
Larry DeMar
Leading Edge Design
http://www.ledgaming.com
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "John.G.Zaroff" <John.G.Zaroff@d...>
wrote:
>
> Does anyone know how to submit new game ideas for video poker to
a
manufacturer? I looked i=on IGTs site and didn't find anything
useful.
John:
You need to get a patent to (1) have legal protection and (2) help
avoid a messy situation between you and the the manufacturer. Let
me
spend talk about the latter issue - the gaming manufacturer has so
many unreleased games / ideas in its R&D or testing stage, etc.
Too
often, someone will submit an idea that the gaming manufacturer
already has but has been secretly developing; a patent avoids all
this issue of the manufacturer "stealing the idea."
Someone mentioned sending the idea via the mail. This won't work.
A
good example would be Ford signing an agreement with Toyota over
Toyota's hybrid technology despite the fact Ford had already
developed its own hybrid technology. Ford could have claimed it
developed its technology independently of Toyota (which is true),
but the problem was Toyota had the patents (so Ford traded Toyota
some emission technoloy for the hybrid technology). A patent has
significant legal protection, if not bargaining power.
The main reason to get a patent is that you will find out the hard
way that someone already came up with the idea. Ernst Moody, who
created multiline has numerous video poker patents.
Also, I agree with another poster that you need to get a game
analysis done by someone the industry trusts; that game analysis
will add significant credibility to your game idea. Lastly, keep
in
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "fordscks" <jason_c_vp@y...> wrote:
mind it takes a long time to get a patent approved, so be patient.
Good luck with your idea.