y2khappens wrote:Hi Jerry, I read your review at your website that explains your puzzle in detail and am very impressed. It is a cool design in my humble opinion. Is it worth the time and cost to try to get a copyright, patent or whatever you need to protect your original creation? I wonder if Willie does anything to protect his creative genius. On the other hand, there is the pure personal satisfaction of creating something fun and challenging that others may enjoy, without even considering any business/profitablility. I think Mr. Strijbos has done quite well though in marketing his puzzles as well as many other talented individuals.
Bill, thanks for your kind comments.
From a cost/benefit analysis point of view, it is unlikely to be worth the time and money to patent/copyright my design. Firstly, protection is not global...a patent or copyright registration must be made in every country that I wish to obtain protection for...this would tantamount to paying expensive patent/attorney fees in many countries in Europe, the USA, Asia etc...and the process to obtain patent/copyright protection is long and arduous.
Next, I seriously doubt that my puzzle would have any form of mass appeal, firstly because I am a total novice/beginner at this, and secondly my design is very amateurish, nothing that is any sort of "breakthrough"...my joy comes from having designed something that actually works, with no intention to profit from it...at least not from this first design anyway. So why pay for protection if I cannot earn the money back. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....so if my design is copied, well, at least I will derive some pleasure from this.....to anyone wishing to copy my design above, please be my guest!
Even those of Wil Strijbos probably only has the following of the puzzling community...while no doubt a pretty large one, nonetheless is still very niche. Yes, his reputation and quality of his puzzles have certainly helped his marketing efforts...today he doesn't really need to do much...his puzzles are quite quickly snapped up the moment he announces their availability.
Lastly, wanting to copy a design is one thing...actually carrying it through is another...I think there is a high barrier to entry here since one would need to get a fabricator to manufacture sufficient quantities to keep the cost minimal...and then to sell enough units of the puzzles to make it profitable.
It would be a risk to produce many units only to find out that it cannot sell because there is insufficient interest. Besides, as I have mentioned the puzzling community is a close fraternity..any sort of unethical behaviour (such as blatant copying without permission) would definitely cause the perpetrator to lose credibility and affect his/her reputation....
I don't think that many of the talented puzzle designers today actually patent/copyright their designs, since many of them only make limited quantities to sell. The cost to protect is probably not financially viable. The only exception perhaps is Revomaze and Sonic Puzzles....where their puzzles sell in hundreds and thousands...these are the only two commercial puzzle sellers I think that perhaps need to protect their designs since they themselves are also the manufacturers/designers...then again, would anyone want to buy an imitation Revomaze??
