NYTimes issues DMCA takedowns against Wordle imitators

[Citizen_404]

Dang, you thought Nintendo was bad? Check this out:

https://www.techspot.com/news/102188-new-york-times-clamps-down-wordle-imitators-dmca.html

 

[LeoTCK]

A silent takedown....
GEP GUN.

 

[Luke94]

Well for instance nowadays they have problems with Pepe Le Pew...etc.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

What a dickle.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Have they patented it? Because you can't trademark/copyright an idea.
And the idea of a word guessing game is hardly a unique one, so I don't think it could be patented in any case.
All the clones need to do is change the branding to not be too similar, and they're in the clear. Nothing New York Times can do.

NY Times didn't even come up with the idea. It's a 1 to 1 clone of Mastermind, all they did was change colors to words instead, and change the presentation a little bit. It plays the exact same.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Have they patented it? Because you can't trademark/copyright an idea.
And the idea of a word guessing game is hardly a unique one, so I don't think it could be patented in any case.
All the clones need to do is change the branding to not be too similar, and they're in the clear. Nothing New York Times can do.

NY Times didn't even come up with the idea. It's a 1 to 1 clone of Mastermind, all they did was change colors to words instead, and change the presentation a little bit.

A "word guessing game" - I'm pretty sure there's been a famous type of these, long before Wordle.
Crosswords, that is. You need to guess what word fits into the boxes, using the provided clue (that can be vague as hell) and any letters you've surmised from other words.

It's literally impossible to trademark a "word guessing game". Scrabble too, in a sense.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

A "word guessing game" - I'm pretty sure there's been a famous type of these, long before Wordle.
Crosswords, that is. You need to guess what word fits into the boxes, using the provided clue (that can be vague as hell) and any letters you've surmised from other words.

It's literally impossible to trademark a "word guessing game". Scrabble too, in a sense.

Crosswords are quite a bit different but it did cross my mind as well. Just didn't think it was the best example since the New York Times crossword is possibly the most famous example of a crossword and something many people associate New York Times with. Wordle is more similar to Mastermind than crosswords despite Mastermind not having anything to do with words.

 

[Luke94]

Well for instance nowadays they have problems with Pepe Le Pew...etc.

All thanks to sarcastically speaking Charles M. Blow.

 

[Dust2dust]

Wordle is more similar to Mastermind than crosswords despite Mastermind not having anything to do with words.

I beg to differ.

I had that game way back when. It was played with letters instead of colored pegs. Only 4-letter words, though. Overall, it was less fun to play than regular MasterMind.

Edit: re-checking that box cover art, I think this was pretty sexist. The girl standing behind the seated man, probably thinking "He's so awesome, he can play that game! I'm just a stupid girl, sadly!" Oh well, the 70's!

 

[Winduss]

* Obligatory pointing out that the game is the same as Lingo, which has been around for many years before Wordle *

 

[Viri]

PUBG kicking them self for not suing Epic to stop Fortnite's battle royale. lmao