Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author's expression in literary, artistic, or musical form.
Material prepared in connection with a game may be subject to copyright if it contains a sufficient amount of literary or pictorial expression. For example, the text matter describing the rules of the game or the pictorial matter appearing on the gameboard or container may be registrable.
The back side of this form letter describes the options for registering copyrightable portions of games. If your game includes any written element, such as instructions or directions, we recommend that you apply to register it as a literary work. Doing so will allow you to register all copyrightable parts of the game, including any pictorial elements. When the copyrightable elements of the game consist predominantly of pictorial matter, you should apply to register it as a work of the visual arts.
Source: United States Copyright Office
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html
Copyright Act, 1957, and Copyright Rules, 1958, as amended.
The game Operation is protected by copyright and trademark.
"to promote the advancement of science and the useful arts."
The original "Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls" was a short story published in 2006. Each of the succeeding novels has its own copyright information.
Using NFL or team logos requires a license; this is an issue of trademark, rather than copyright.
rules are the point of the game
Ideas cannot be protected by copyright; only the expression of the ideas.
A musical riff would be automatically protected by copyright as soon as it is fixed in a tangible medium (i.e., notated or recorded).
2008 Wimpy Kid, Inc.
The game Jenga® is protected by copyright, trademark, and patent.The original graphics are protected by copyright laws.The name Jenga® is a registered trademarkThe "method of operation" (playing the game) is patented.
The duration of The Rules of the Game is 1.77 hours.
The game was patented in 1924.