Can you patent a card game?
<p>I have created a card game, the idea is somewhere between poker and slots. I hope to create a website to monetise the game but do not know whether I am able to patent the game in order to stop big companies from stealing the game. How effective is a patent at protecting a card game? Also, if so, then must I patent all small variants of the game also? It should be noted that I am from Australia where gambling websites are legal. Thanks.</p>

<p>Yes.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/auspat/index.htm">AusPat database</a> is an excellent source for looking for Australian patents. I did a quick search for <a href="http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/quickSearch.do?queryString=card+game&amp;resultsPerPage=">"card game"</a> and came across 276 results fitting those keywords. Not all involve the classic generic-52-card-deck format, but some do.</p>

<p>A good example - and one that seems similar to your idea - is <a href="http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/applicationDetails.do?applicationNo=2014901074">"Modified blackjack game using non-standard blackjack card values"</a>, by Davinder Signh Sandhu. There's no direct link to it from AusPat.<sup>1</sup></p>

<p>So yes, you can patent a card game in Australia.</p>

<p>At the moment, I don't have enough information to answer your other two questions.</p>

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<p><sup>1 I found <a href="http://encrypted.google.com/patents/US5979897">a similar American patent</a> with more information, though I have no proof that the two are in similar formats.</sup></p>

<p>While many card games are patented in the U.S., it has been almost impossible to patent a card game or a board game in the last few years. The movement against software patents has resulted in a very broad application "abstractness" being used as a rejection, even though the courts have not defined it.</p>

australia intellectual-property patents