I'm not a lawyer but I found some links that might interest you so I hope this helps. An interesting link about this : http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/12/22/pat

I'm not a lawyer but I found some links that might interest you so I hope this helps. An interesting link about this : http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/12/22/patenting-board-games-101/id=21356/ http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/12/22/patenting-board-games-1... Also the paragraph about Monopoly on its Wikipedia page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_board_game_Monopoly#Legal_status http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_board_game_Monop... This seem to indicate that a board game can be patented not only on its design or its name but also on its rules. So this seem to show that you cannot decide to take your favourite board game, "digitalize" it and just change the name and be of the hook. The same seem to apply to Games on TV where channels pay rights to make their own version of the game in another country for example/