Whitney received a patent (later numbered as X72) for his cotton gin on March 14, 1794; however, it was not validated until 1807. Whitney and his partner Miller did not intend to sell the gins. Rather, like the proprietors of grist and sawmills, they expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton – two-fifths of the profits, paid in cotton. Resentment at this scheme, the mechanical simplicity of the device, and the primitive state of patent law, made infringement inevitable. As Whitney and Miller were unable to produce enough gins to meet demand, imitation gins began to spread. Ultimately, patent infringement lawsuits consumed the profits and their cotton gin company went out of business in 1797.[2]

For an endlessly impatient guy like me, that was a big big deal. A game-changer, literally.

To understand why, you have to understand that copyright does not protect an idea, rather it protects the authors original expression of the idea.

For example, copyright law cannot be used by John Grisham to prevent others from writing legal thrillers based on the concept of an associate working at firm run by corrupt partners (which is essentially the idea behind Grisham’s book “The Firm”). However, Mr. Grisham can use copyright law to stop others from making copies of “The Firm” because that book is his expression of the idea.

In the same way, Hasbro cannot use copyright law to stop somebody from making a spelling game. However, Hasbro CAN use copyright law to stop somebody from copying the layout of the Scrabble gameboard because that layout is Hasbro’s expression of the idea of a spelling game.

Also, you’ve completely ignored Hasbro’s trademark rights in Scrabble. Read some of the comments to Glen’s post.

Last, I want to address your semi-coherent discussion of the term of intellectual property rights. Copyright and patent rights do have limited terms. Trademark rights (e.g., the name “Scrabble” for a game) and trade secret rights (e.g., the Coca-Cola formula) can be perpetual if properly maintained.

If you’re correct that Scrabble was first published in 1936, then Hasbro may have copyright until 2036. So don’t copy the board until 2037. Don’t like that? Take it up with Congress. And almost every other country in the world that agreed that 100 years is the appropriate term for copyright.

If you want to know more about copyright, I suggest you hit wikipedia for a very brief & high level overview. The copyright office is a notoriously poor place for beginners to find information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

Oh, you’re also wrong about Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. It’s well known that Whitney patented the cotton gin. He didn’t make money because he chose a bad business model. There’s a very good explanation here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Whitney

(And for all you nit-pickers out there, yes, I know that not every work gets a 100 year term)

And somehow it seems different to protect a fundamental technology that can be used across an industry in different applications rather than a particular game…

But otherwise I agree with everything and even where I don’t… well said Michael!!!!