NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/misc/intprop/1589

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-25 | 6.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!mintaka.lcs.mit.edu!ai-lab!life.ai.mit.edu!friedman
From: [e-mail] (Noah Friedman)
Newsgroups: misc.int-property
Subject: Looking for prior art for US Patent #4,624,462
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 25 Jan 93 08:28:22 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
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Organization: Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139
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[I'm posting this announcement on behalf of the League for Programming
Freedom.  Please repost widely.]

A small family company in California is being sued by another company over
some electronic bingo game machines which allegedly infringe a couple of US
patents, one of which is #4,624,462 (an extension of U.S. Patent
#4,455,025, the claims of which were posted in another message).  This
patent was filed for on May 18, 1984.  We are asking the net for any known
prior art earlier than this filing date, but preferably for prior art
before September 1981, since that's when the first, related patent was
filed.  Both patents have some extremely broad claims, so probably any
known devices which are similar will help, but the closer any prior art is
to the exact patent claims, the better.  The patent abstract and claims for
#4,624,462 are at the end of this message.

The patent holder is said to have intimidated several other companies out
of the electronic bingo business.  Presently the patent holder is asking
for an injunction against the alleged infringer, which will cause them to
lose business (which they need to get revenue for fighting the lawsuit)
before the trial even begins.

Please mail your prior art directly to [e-mail].
Don't broadcast it on the net!  The reason not to tell everyone is that if
the patent holder finds out about the prior art, they may be able to
nullify it by asking for reexamination of the patent.  So send the prior
art to the LPF, and the LPF will give it to anyone who is seriously
interested in fighting the patent.

Please send prior art before the weekend of Saturday, Jan 23, if you can.
Anything sent after that will still be useful, but sending it sooner will
give the defendant more time to fight the injunction and to prepare more
adequately for the trial.

The defendants are also interested in finding expert witnesses familiar
with these sorts of electronic board games in the 1970s.  If you are
interested in helping, send mail to [e-mail].


Note that fighting this one particular lawsuit isn't going to solve the
general problem of software patent, though it will help a particular
defendant.  Stopping these sorts of lawsuits once and for all and ridding
the industry of software patetns will require political action.  The LPF
encourages you to join.  For more information, mail [e-mail].


Patent abstract and claims follow.

Abstract:

An electronic card and board game for playing bingo, keno, and the like
games, wherein the master game board being operated by the caller generates
and transmits random bingo numbers and game patterns, and the player's game
board receives and processes the bingo numbers and game patterns, and the
player's game board receives and processes the received information in
conjunction with locally originated data determining the contents of a
multiple bingo card.  The multiple bingo card is implemented as a
replaceable, removable transparent template bearing imprinted bingo
numbers.  In working position, the card overalays a dot-matrix display
incorporated in the player's game board.  The display is controlled by a
microprocessor.  The microprocessor activates the display dots located
beneath the bingo numbers matching those trasmitted by the master board via
a radio channel.  The microprocessor computes bingo numbers on the card
using the identification number of the card in accordance with a predefined
algorithm.



What is claimed is:
1.  In combination, a predetermined set of game cards and a game network
for playing a game utilizing said predetermined set of game cards;
   said game network comprising:
   at least one master game board incomporating a master data input means,
      a master data processing means responsive to said master data input
      means, and a master data output means responsible to said master data
      processing means,
   at least one player's game board incorporating a player's input means
      responsive to said master data output means, a player's data
      processing means responsive to said master data output means, and a
      player's data output means responsive to said player's data
      processing means;
   said master game board transmitting via said master data output means
      predetermined data relevant to said game, and random data at least
      partially matching said predetermined set of game cards;
   said player's game board comprising
   means for receiving said predetermined data and said random data via
      said player's data input means,
   means for storing an informational content of at least one game card out
      of said predetermined set in said player's data processing means,
   comparison means for comparing said predetermined data and said random data
      on one hand, and said informational content on the other hand, and
   means for signaling the current status of said card game via said
      player's data output means as determined by said comparison.

2.  The combination of claim 1, wherein said player's data input means
includes a local data entry means.

3.   The combination of claim 2, wherein said player's game board includes
means to compute at least a portion of said informational content by
processing an alphanumerical identification number of said game card
in accordance with a predetermined rule; and
   said alphanumerical identification number being entered via said
      player's local data entry means.

4. The combination of claim 2, wherein said player's local data entry means
includes lock means that is remotely locked and unlocked by a predetermined
command included in said predetermined data.

5. The combination of claim 1, wherein said player's data output means
includes a data display means and a sound generating means.

6. The combination of claim 1, wherein at least of said game cards out
of said set is a transparent template bearing visual game symbols and
overlaying said player's display.

7. The combination of claim 1, wherein said player's game board includes
means to transmit said informational content and said current status back
to said master game board via said player's data output means.