[ishkur101]

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

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.

[saddino]

That's nice and all, but didn't stop Hasbro from taking down Scrabulous: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/scrabulou...

And didn't stop the Tetris Company from taking down Mino: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/06/wireduk-tetris-clone/

IMO this is why Zynga's Words With Friends has a different board, different point values and different bonus squares...

[praxulus]

"Scrabulous" the name is a pretty obvious ripoff of "Scrabble," so that's not really a great example. However, the Mino case is certainly very interesting.

[saddino]

The Scrabulous case alleged both trademark infringement (the obvious name ripoff) AND copyright infringement (the board and tile design).