if you invent a printed puzzle, can you protect it?

(for sake of example; the sudoku has never been thought of before, and i come up with it whilst doodling over breakfast)

 

if so, how? i.e. what form of intellectual property does it come under?

 

thank in advance for any answers

This seems to answer the questions http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/493249/mythbusting-game-design-and-copyright-trademarks-a

 

Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form.

Source: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html

You can register a patent for a game mechanic, but this will unlikely be the case. It would have to be demonstrably unique in all of its concept which is very difficult in the realm of game mechanics! Had the mechanics for Sudoku not previously been demonstrated in the realm of game mechanics then I believe this would have been an excellent example of a patentable mechanic.

 

[edit]

 

than => then; in case anyone was wondering . . .

Edited March 25, 201213 yr by Xittenn

than => then; in case anyone was wondering . . .

 

Equal or bigger than? or equal or bigger then?

It's a symbol for an arrow and, in this case, it lets you know what the edit was.

It was a game mechanic >.>

It's called a joke.

I laughed moo, honest!