Copyrighting

D

daveb

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
When Texas Express nine ball rules were first created, were they copyrighted? Are they proprietary? Does an officially sanctioned tournament need to pay a nominal fee for the use of that format and rules?
Same question for BCA rules. Does an officially sanctioned BCA tournament have to pay a fee for the right to that sanctioning, their name, and rule use?
The reason I ask is that my son is creating a pretty unique and interesting set of rules and a format that could be used to create a new type of pool league structure. I have advised him to work on copyrighting them but I wonder how much of a safeguard this truly is unless you are trying to create a league franchise, i.e. APA, VNEA etc.
I realize that the question is irrelevant when it comes to local events that use any rules they choose. Thanks in advance for any constructive feedback.
 
daveb said:
When Texas Express nine ball rules were first created, were they copyrighted? NO.


Are they proprietary? NO

Does an officially sanctioned tournament need to pay a nominal fee for the use of that format and rules? NO


Same question for BCA rules. Does an officially sanctioned BCA tournament have to pay a fee for the right to that sanctioning, their name, and rule use?
NO


The reason I ask is that my son is creating a pretty unique and interesting set of rules and a format that could be used to create a new type of pool league structure. I have advised him to work on copyrighting them but I wonder how much of a safeguard this truly is unless you are trying to create a league franchise, i.e. APA, VNEA etc.
I realize that the question is irrelevant when it comes to local events that use any rules they choose. Thanks in advance for any constructive feedback.
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That's why the Rules are published. So every one would have the chance to use them. I would be very interested in your Son's new project.....SPF=randyg
 
Once they are refined a bit, I'll be happy to share them with you. I'd appreciate your input Randy, thanks. It's structured more along the lines of a poker tournament blended with round robin play. It's pretty interesting actually.
 
daveb said:
When Texas Express nine ball rules were first created, were they copyrighted? Are they proprietary? Does an officially sanctioned tournament need to pay a nominal fee for the use of that format and rules?
Same question for BCA rules. Does an officially sanctioned BCA tournament have to pay a fee for the right to that sanctioning, their name, and rule use?
The reason I ask is that my son is creating a pretty unique and interesting set of rules and a format that could be used to create a new type of pool league structure. I have advised him to work on copyrighting them but I wonder how much of a safeguard this truly is unless you are trying to create a league franchise, i.e. APA, VNEA etc.
I realize that the question is irrelevant when it comes to local events that use any rules they choose. Thanks in advance for any constructive feedback.
Click to expand...

Anything that you write is copyrighted by you so long as you can prove that you were the first to create the work in that form. It's not necessary to file anything or even declare that a work is copyrighted. A trademark is a different thing. You might be able to get a trademark on a name like "Texas Express".
 
daveb said:
... Same question for BCA rules. Does an officially sanctioned BCA tournament have to pay a fee for the right to that sanctioning, their name, and rule use? ...
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There has never been a fee for using BCA rules for a tournament so far as I know. The main point of making rule books is to get people to use a consistent set of rules so that people from different places can reasonably play the game against each other. But the official rules for pool now are the World Standardized Rules from the WPA (which the BCA distributes). They are available for free on-line, but if you wanted to print them and sell them for profit, you would likely be breaking some kind of law.

There usually is a fee to get your tournament sanctioned by whichever organization, and back when the BCA was publishing annual results of their sanctioned tournaments, your $50 sanction fee would get your tournament into the next year's rule book. But the sanction fee was never required of tournaments that were simply using the BCA rules.

You may want to look into what was done for the wart called "seven ball." I think it was patented so that each use requires a fee or permission. (Or I could be totally confused.)
 
daveb said:
Once they are refined a bit, I'll be happy to share them with you. I'd appreciate your input Randy, thanks. It's structured more along the lines of a poker tournament blended with round robin play. It's pretty interesting actually.
Click to expand...
That sounds like a process or procedure. I don't think a copyright would be effective protection, but you need to talk to a lawyer if you want to have exclusive rights to market it. And you probably should not publicly reveal any details until you can determine whether it can be protected.
 
One of my regrets in life.......not moving fast enough to keep the Texas Express website going, after the death of Mr. McChesney. I aplogize to all that love the rules.
As far as using the rules, no problem, just label it Texas Express Rules in your flyers and ads, and everyone will know what to expect. That is all the payment we need.
 
As far as I know, you cannot copyright or patent a game. I think you can copyright a specific set of rules, but anyone is free to rewrite the rules in a different way.

Here is the copyright office's page on games:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html

"Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles."
 
Your goal is to create an owned pool game where no one can play it without paying you a fee... and you want it to be popular and used by many to make you money...

stop me when this Idea starts to sound silly...

if you have a new game.. I'd love to hear it...

if you want me to pay you every time I play it... good luck
 
Thanks for your responses everyone. It's perfectly understood that anyone can imitate and use any set of rules or format they choose regardless of where you learned of it. It's done in bars and poolhalls every day. BUT, if you choose to establish a league that directly copies the rules, format , paperwork, handicapping system ,etc. of say, the APA, then there are some legal infringements and recourse. Otherwise no one would pay the large fees to buy into the APA franchise and become a league operator. This is more along the lines of my question. So I guess my intial question wasn't posed very accurately. It's not so much a new game, but rather a potentially new tournament or league format that could be applied to 8ball or 9ball with some minor modifications to the traditional rules of those games to adapt to the format itself.
 
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Bigtruck said:
Curious Randy, Was there ever Texas Express 8 ball rules?

Ray
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Never by our Texas Express Group. Many people do strange things. I don't know how anyone could improve the current BCA 8-Ball Rules!

Texas Express 8-Ball, I've heard that term for years, don't really know what it means......TX=randyg
 
daveb said:
When Texas Express nine ball rules were first created, were they copyrighted? Are they proprietary? Does an officially sanctioned tournament need to pay a nominal fee for the use of that format and rules?
Same question for BCA rules. Does an officially sanctioned BCA tournament have to pay a fee for the right to that sanctioning, their name, and rule use?
The reason I ask is that my son is creating a pretty unique and interesting set of rules and a format that could be used to create a new type of pool league structure. I have advised him to work on copyrighting them but I wonder how much of a safeguard this truly is unless you are trying to create a league franchise, i.e. APA, VNEA etc.
I realize that the question is irrelevant when it comes to local events that use any rules they choose. Thanks in advance for any constructive feedback.
Click to expand...

1. A new pool league structure sounds like a business method and can be patented.
2. Games can be patented. Aspects of them can be copyrighted and trademarked as well.
3. Rules can be copyrighted. It doesn't stop someone from doing what the rules say, it only protects the embodiment. Otherwise, following a recipe for a cake could be an infringment.
 
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