Is the game idea even ownable? I didn't think that board game rulesets were copy... | Hacker News

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		throwaway22032 on Feb 1, 2022 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: The New York Times buys Wordle Is the game idea even ownable? I didn't think that board game rulesets were copyrightable, only the graphics. Can I just host a wordle clone and bot add the NYT's latest word every day at midnight from Twitter? Can you copyright "the english dictionary word that was used on Wordle NYT today"? I feel like the owner basically is laughing to the bank on this, they've bought.. a domain? The brand "wordle"? Even that?

dehrmann on Feb 1, 2022 [–]

Sure, you can clone it, but you'd be competing with the well-known brand that's free in somewhere between two weeks and two months. NYT bought a user base that might be into crosswords and spelling bee.

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