[gameprogrammer] Re: is Solitaire patented?

Szasz Pal wrote:
Kevin Jenkins wrote: 
There is a patent on playing solitaire on the computer.
http://www.chillingeffects.org/patent/notice.cgi?NoticeID=1070

Thats a very strange patent. as I undestood, it's about playing card games over the internet. But it's very strange, honestly I don't really believe there is no prior-art for this. The patent description seems too general. I don't think there wasn't any over-the-network played card games prior 1998 (when the patent was filled).
... or I am just misunderstanding something??? ..
About this claims, each claim bust the true for the patend together, or it's enough if one of them is true? As I see they start with soemthing general, and the following claims are specializations of the previous ones. So I suppose actually the last claim is the key one?

Grr.... I hate patents ... (and I'm glad I live in Europe ;-) )

Anyway, thanks for the link, I think I will dig a bit more in the patent topic ... so I might go mad in the following days :-)

But surly there were games played using the internet as a medium to communicate each players intention? Chess via email anyone? I mean, just because the game equipment is different doesn't make it any less a game....

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