Amusement devices: games – Chance devices – Chance selection
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-29
2001-10-02
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Chance devices
Chance selection
C273S269000, C463S019000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06296250
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to games of skill and chance, such as bingo-type, lottery-type, and tic-tac-toe-type games, which are designed for contemporaneous play with an on-going competitive athletic event, such as a game of baseball. In particular, the present invention relates to a sweepstakes-type game in which pre-printed game cards are distributed to contestants which permit the contestants to predict the performance of selected players prior to the athletic event and which will reveal winning contestants and associated prizes based upon the geometric arrangement and/or point value of correct predictions.
2. Discussion of Related Art
While the popularity of professional sports has increased dramatically with increased televised and media coverage of professional sporting events, this growth has not been accompanied by a general increase in stadium attendance, which, in many cases, has steadily decreased in recent years.
For instance, while professional baseball is one of the most widely viewed spectator sports in the United States and many professional baseball games are broadcast nationwide via cable television and satellite, stadium attendance and viewership has diminished to such a great extent in some instances that extreme measures, such as team moves and newly-built ballparks, have been undertaken to attract an increased number of spectators, at great expense to team owners.
One reason for decreased spectator attendance and viewership of professional sporting events such as baseball is the lack of fan participation and recognition in any aspect of the on-going game. Since fans may enjoy the game at home equally as much as in the ballpark, an added incentive is needed in order to attract additional numbers of fans to ballparks.
Another reason for the diminished interest and viewership in traditional professional sporting events includes the increased level of competition from the constantly expanding number of non-athletic entertainment and leisure-related activities. Similarly, traditional competitive sports has in recent years faced increased competition due to the growth of interest and viewership in competitive athletic events which have traditionally not been regarded as widely-viewed spectator sports, such as ice skating, golf and gymnastics. Since nationally broadcast team sporting events comprise a constantly diminishing portion of the ever-increasing spectrum of cable television and satellite-broadcast entertainment programming services, an added incentive is also needed to attract an increased number of viewers to such sporting events.
The sweepstakes-type game of the present invention is intended to restore fan and spectator enthusiasm in team sports, such as baseball and football, to the same high level of intensity experienced in foregone times, when no other competitive athletic events or entertainment activities competed with team sports for spectators and viewers. The game of the present invention is also intended to enhance spectator interest and enthusiasm in an on-going competitive sporting event by directly involving the spectators in the play-by-play action of the sporting event via the use of a pre-printed game card which reveals prizes to spectators based upon the performance of selected athletes in the game. Despite the waning enthusiasm in sporting events when the home team is far behind the visiting team, the game of the present invention is designed to maintain spectator interest in the on-going game irrespective of the score. Thus, the sweepstakes-type game of the present invention creates additional incentive for fan and spectator interest in the normal play-by-play action of an on-going sporting event and will also facilitate a greater familiarity with the individual players' skills, batting rotations, and fielding positions. Additionally, more spectators and viewers will remain involved in the games from start to finish.
In one embodiment of the sweepstakes-type game of the present invention, a spectator/contestant may actually predict the performance of selected athletes prior to the game and prizes are awarded based upon the accuracy of his or her predictions. In another embodiment, the performances of the selected athletes which will result in the awarding of a sweepstakes prize are preassigned, prizes are awarded based solely upon the actual performance of selected athletes, and spectators need not make any predictions. By awarding prizes offered by advertisers and sponsors of the sporting event, spectators and viewers are rewarded for correct predictions of the play-by-play action of the sporting event and an increased number of spectators and viewers is thus attracted to the event.
The prior art offers no similar game of any kind. In this regard, the present inventor has conducted an extensive search in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and has determined that no sports-related game of skill and/or chance currently exists which could be used to suit the interests of fans, teams, and advertisers, and which would nonetheless be successful in enhancing spectator interest, stadium attendance, as well as increasing television and radio audiences.
For instance, while numerous sports-related games of chance have previously been proposed, none of these games is particularly suitable for use with an on-going competitive athletic event. Bingo-style games are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,150 to Weeks; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,601 to Frischmann, et al. Bingo-type promotional games have also been proposed which utilize promotional coupons published, for example, in newspapers. Promotional games are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,509,759; 4,619,457 and 4,711,454 to Small. One example of such a game is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,959 to Price for a quarterback draw football game. While the Price patent discloses a game board which includes a simulated football field having player pieces, movement of the player pieces is determined by decks of cards instead of actual plays in a contemporaneously played football game.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,270 to Presbrey, while a device is used in conjunction with a broadcast golf game, the device is simply a visual aid and is not a game of chance. U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,050 to Koza, et al. discloses a broadcast lottery in which a player acquires a ticket from a transmitter location. The stored information is compared to the broadcast information and, if a match results, the ticket is deemed to be a winning ticket. However, the participant in the lottery does not select, on the basis of skill or chance, predicted batting performances of individual athletes in a competitive sporting event.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,332,218 and 5,043,889 to Lucey, a golf sweepstakes game is disclosed in which contestants predict the winner and runners-up of a golf tournament. Sweepstakes prizes are awarded depending upon the accuracy of the contestants' predictions. The contestants are each provided with a game card having an access number, and a code system allows the contestants to convert their selections into numbers which are input to a computer system along with the contestants' respective access number. The results of the golf tournament are entered into the computer system, and the winner of the sweepstakes is determined in accordance therewith.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,639,894, a game or puzzle based on baseball is disclosed in which a score card is formed with a series of columns. The first column lists the players of a team while the remaining nine columns each represent a different inning. A guide is provided for defining codes for different plays, each of which can only be used once on the score card. Some innings are blocked out for each of the players. The contestant fills in the blank spaces for each player in the available innings in an effort to obtain the greatest number of runs while completing a perfect score card. The game is relatively difficult to understand, complex to play, highly unrealistic, and does not serve to enh
Kirschtlen, et al
Layno Benjamin H.
Mendiratta V K
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