Solitaire patented ? ;-)

LOL. Thomas Warfield who like and develop a solitaire game has received a letter from a lawyer claiming that a patent exist on ... Solitaire ;-)))

Are we going mad ? Are we going to patent everything, the air we breathe, the footpath I'm walking on every morning, the melody I just created in my shower ! Crazy world.

The patents in question are 5,823,879, 6,183,366, and 6,264,560.

Here is a quote of the letter:

We represent Mr. Sheldon Goldberg with respect to the above-indentifed patents, collectively referred to as the Goldberg Patents. It has come to our attention that goodsol.com, an Internet-based service provided by Goodsol Development, Inc., infringes the Goldberg Patents....

For example, claim 18 of the 560 Patent covers the playing of a card game wherein an ordered collection of card representations is generated in which each card representation is eligible for play in a game of the card game. Multiple players may play the card game, and their selection of card representations may overlap in time. A first player may cease selecting card representations while a second player continues selecting card representations after the first player ceased. A second player may terminate a second game after which the first play [sic] may continue playing the first game while the second player commences a third game, and the first game and the third game may overlap in time.

Goodsol.com enables users to play a card game, such as solitaire, in which an ordered collection of card representations is generated where each card representation is eligible for play in a game of solitaire. Multiple players may play solitaire, and their selection of card representations may overlap in time. Also, a first player may cease playing, while a second player continues. Then the second player may terminate the second game, while the first player resumes play of the first game, and the second player begins playing a third game of solitaire, which may overlap in time with the first game.

Got that? OK, here is claim 18 from the patent:

18. A method of playing a card game, comprising:

generating an ordered collection of card representations, having a particular order, for playing said card game, wherein each card representation of the ordered collection is eligible for play in a game of said card game depending upon said particular order of the card representations in said ordered collection;

first playing, by a first player in a first game of said card game, a first sequence of one or more card representations selected over time from the eligible card representations of said ordered collection;

second playing, by a second player in a second game of said card game, a second sequence of one or more card representations selected over time from the eligible card representations of said ordered collection, wherein card representation selections for said first and second sequences overlap in time;

ceasing, by the first player, to select card representations for said first game before all card representations of said first sequence have been selected;

continuing, by the second player, to select card representations for said second game after said step of ceasing;

terminating, by the second player, said second game;

subsequently continuing, by the first player, to play said first game while the second player commences a third game of said card game wherein a third sequence of one or more card representations selected over time from the eligible representations of said ordered collection is played by the second player and wherein selections for card representations for said first and third sequences overlap in time.

This lawyer is trying to claim that computer solitaire violates this patent.

First, this patent is clearly ridiculous. You cannot patent a card game that has been in existence for hundreds of years. But, even given that the claim is absurd. Do they even know what solitaire is? Solitaire is by definition a single player game. That whole paragraph where it talks about first player, second player sounds like it was written by someone under the influence. Hey, dude, turn on your computer, fire up Windows Solitaire and take a look.

Take a real close look, guys.

The earliest date on any of these patents is a filing date of Dec 3, 1996 (it has some kind of amendment that says Jan 19, 1996, but whatever). Solitaire has been around for hundreds of years, and computer implementations have been around for decades. Windows Solitaire dates from around 1990. Most importantly in this case, our solitaire games were first released in 1995.

This patent is patent nonsense.