Post by Fulio PenAfter the Wheel of Fortune first appeared in the U.S. in January 1975,
the games in many other languages followed. The following web page
contains a design for a Chinese version of the game. It is very
different from it in all other languages. I wonder whether it can be
protected by a kind of int-property, a patent for instance.
http://www.pinyinology.com/wheel/wheel2/fortune2d.html
Thanks for your help.
Not yet by patent anywhere in the world. Otherwise who where
in the world would claim whatever is the protection you have in mind
as against who where in the world? And if the claim is not acquiesced
in, sought to be enforced by what kind of request to what judicial or
other tribunal or other governmental body where?
Depending on who would do the counting and classifying of the
+/- 8 to 50 or more languages prevalent in China, what is (are) the
version(S) that would be protected?
Since saying without more and even if arguendo correctly that
some particular Chinese language version of the game is very different
in its linguistic components from a comparably named and/or played
game in other languages does not tell anyone anything else of interest
about the format and presentation of the game, such as whether there
is or is not a tackily dressed apparently large breasted female person
participating prominently in displaying a player's guesses and the
desired ('correct') answer, and so on, what else is basically
different or comparably close to being same as the version used and
participated in that you have in mind compared with the US produced
television show as it has evolved in recent years and as compared with
that show's many licensed versions and relatedly licensed offshoots?
And by the way, what is the significance you presume by saying
that some particular Chinese language version is very different from
all [sic?] other languages? Any more or less so than that the
Malaysian version is very different from the Dutch version? Or than
that the Japanese version is very different from the UK version? Or
than that the Israel-Hebrew is very different from the Mexican
version? Or than that the Egyptian version is very different from the
Bulgarian version? etc., etc., etc.
And in connection with the off-shoot alternatives, do you
refer only to a live or recorded television show and, if so, broadcast
by who from where and mostly viewed where and by who, and/or do you
refer to some sort of stand-alone board game facilitated with or
without video, such as a CD-ROM or via online streamed video, and, if
so, from where/who to who/where?
Do you ask only about the game itself and not or also
including ancillary int-property claims and protections such as, e.g.,
what in Calif. in some other places in the USA is a so-called right of
publicity in and for the benefit of a person closely identified with
the US version of the TV show?
Withal in terms of who would do the protecting, bearing in
mind that worldwide rights in/to the underlying US Wheel of Fortune
version(s) is controlled basically by the mega business, Sony or its
affiliates and licensees, if someone else was to assert some sort of
int-protection that that person or firm had not purchased from Sony et
al., what is the likelihood that that person or firm would have the
economic and other resources to be able to overcome a cease and desist
and/or damage claim by or demonstrably on behalf of Sony et al.?
Realistically, how, in other words, would whatever is the
int-protection which you might want to assert be implementable and
actually implemented?