Re: Icehouse patent expiration

[jdroscha@...]

--- In piecepack@y..., Ronald Hale-Evans <rwhe@l...> wrote:
> As I mentioned, the Icehouse patent has expired.  Perhaps the
> piecepack specification, version 23.5, will one day incorporate
> Icehouse pieces or something like them.

   Ha ha ha!  Seriously, though, we don't have to wait that long.  
The Icehouse pieces themselves are not patented; they are merely 
the "preferred embodiment" of the Icehouse game.  Remember that the 
Icehouse set was originally designed for use in one, specific game 
which itself was called Icehouse.  The patent only protected the way 
that game is played, much like WotC's patent protecting Magic: the 
Gathering.

   In an article I wrote for Grampa Barmo's Discount Games Magazine 
(which you owe it to yourself to subscribe to, IMHO), I mused over 
the possibilities created by combining a piecepack with an Icehouse 
set.  (Incidentally, I also mentioned combining the piecepack with 
chess men, Scrabble tiles, or playing cards.)

Game On,
James