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Mark, copyright issues involve games, too. Take a look at the copyright babble at the Rubik's cube site.

When it comes to patents, have a look here. Copyrights are international under the Bern Convention, but patents are strictly national in force. Despite attempts, the terms of international treaties have never been successfully negotiated. For instance, this means that a working software program (other than one copyrighted by the inventor) which plays a particular board game carrying a current US Patent can be developed, freely distributed and used by people in all of the other 200 or so nations of the world legally and without restriction. Just don't violate any applicable copyright (or trademark) which may also exist. This may mean that the original name of the game cannot be safely used.

So patents are no problem when it comes to games, if the game is patented abroad. The only problem is the trademark. But the only thing one needs to do is to rename the game. When it comes to chess variants one needn't bother. I think it's ridiculous to claim copyright for the rules of a chess variant. The copyright is valid, of course, for anything that one writes about the variant, i.e., an article about it, piece images, etc. But one cannot claim copyright for the rules. How would it be if philosophers claimed copyright for their philosophical ideas, saying that nobody else has the right to think in this particular way?

Mats