Thanks so much Don! I did try and mimic letter frequency to the vernacular with more common letters appearing more frequently. We do have 4 A's, E's but only 1 Z and Q, etc. I'll need to double check to make sure they are still on par with a 2019/20 vocabulary for future prints.
I had no idea about the list of words IP Hasbro is trying to secure! That sure seems like a stretch but I'd imagine they have a few lawyers who are flexible enough to try and make that claim.
I opted to place the harder to use letters on the higher index card's as a secondary scoring mechanism if needed. The A's, E's and etc are on the 2's and 3's while the Z, K and B are on the face card and aces. Individual scores on the letters really cluttered the layout and as you said, seemed risky considering IP concerns. I've never used another brand name to market the Flex Deck and will not in the future so I hope we can all play nice in this sandbox.
Do you know of any card games focused on letters that are in the common domain?
Best,
I don't know of other games that use letters on cards. I'm pretty sure there's out there, though - I just don't know of them, and there's also a good chance that they're out of print. Bear in mind, when researching older games, that certain elements (such as the alphabet itself, ranks and suits of standard playing cards, etc.) are completely fair game, while other elements (scoring methods, game mechanics, names, etc.) might be covered under copyright, trademark or patent law. I know a bit less about patents, but regarding copyrights, pretty much anything prior to 1924 (in this country!) is considered public domain, as are select works whose copyright holders allowed the rights to expire, back in the days when they had to be renewed. These days, though, not only are copyrights in effect from the moment of creation, they don't expire for many, many years - it's either:
- 70 years after the death of the author
- If it was "work for hire," whichever of the following is shorter:
- 120 years after creation or
- 95 years after publication
It's kind of a bastardization of the original intent of copyright, which was to allow the author of the work some opportunity to profit from his or her creation, but to eventually allow it to become part of the public domain, where others may add to it, improve upon it, etc. while it's still culturally relevant. But courtesy of musician and Republican US Congressman Sonny Bono and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, nicknamed the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act" but its detractors, copyright now last long enough to protect works well past the point that the majority of people alive at the time it expires will care. It's nickname derives from how the Walt Disney Company lobbied to get it passed, because if it hadn't, the first film appearance of Mickey Mouse, in the short film "Steamboat Willie," would now be in the public domain, meaning Mickey himself would also be public domain. His wife and successor in Congress, Mary Bono, actually said that Sonny wanted to make copyright protection last forever, but her staff informed her that this was unconstitutional. The law was named after him posthumously - he perished in a skiing accident earlier in the same year the law was passed.
But I'm getting off the point here. Just poke around, make sure what you're doing isn't messing around with someone else's IP, and when it comes time to make a finished product, check with an IP lawyer to be sure you're not going to get sued by someone. If you were making an ordinary pack of International Standard playing cards or a set of plain old alphabet cards, I'd say you're good to go, but you're attempting to create or invent a new thing, and it's a thing that someone else might have created/invented either in whole or in part before you. It would suck to see your idea crash and burn over a lawsuit from some company you never heard of before because of some game they own the rights to from dozens of years ago.
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