I just attempted to send you a message via your contact form. I do not know if it went through or not (the form neither confirmed nor denied). If you got the message, please just ignore this. If you did not receive it then please let me know [my email address is provided when I post here] so we can discuss my patent project.

Josh

The type of thing you are describing is the type of software that can be patented and a patent attorney would say it is “patent eligible subject matter.” The question of whether it will likely be patented requires a patent search to see what else is out there. In the software area almost everything can be patented, the question will be whether what you can get will be broad enough to be worth the expense of obtaining the patent. You see, the more specific the claims the more likely a patent can be obtained. However, the broader the claims the broader the scope of protection you have. So it is really impossible to answer your questions about what coverage you would or could anticipate without knowing more about what you are doing and what else is out there that is similar.

If you need assistance please let me know.

-Gene

Can I file a patent on the software that stores and executes these heuristics?

If so, when I file a patent on that software that allows the users to set up these rules and that automatically executes them when the users time has expired, then what exactly have I patented? Have I a patent that covers “all systems that allow users to set up rules relating to online chess games and that execute their rules in their absense”? Or do I only have a patent on my particular implementation of said the rules (my algorithms, etc, my flowchart exactly).

What about other implementations of the same idea? Let’s say someone else comes along and says “great idea” I can do the same thing only I’ll add in this step that does absolutely nothing but differentiate it from the existing patent. Their flowchart would look different, but the user would not be able to tell any significant difference. However my patent might not be enforcable against their solution because they didn’t use exactly my implementation. What are your thoughts on this?