Oh wow, patent was only granted 7 years after the game was released so the game will be 22 years old when the patent expires if not extended. Patent law is bonkers.
It's because many of the iterations of the patent they tried to file were too similar to prior art in other games. Plus I'd hope 22 years is plenty of time to make a profit off of an idea you have lmao. Better that than 70 years after the crator's death like copyright.
