US20090014959A1

US20090014959A1 - Playing cards

Info

Publication number: US20090014959A1
Application number: US11/825,771
Authority: US
Inventors: Valentin Gracia
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-07-09
Filing date: 2007-07-09
Publication date: 2009-01-15

Abstract

A deck of playing cards having front sides with face depiction spots arranged on two halves. The appearance of the rear sides of the cards is preferably coordinated with the face depiction spots.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to playing cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
Packs of playing cards have long been used to play card games. Playing cards generally are referred to as having front faces that are directed toward the player holding the cards in his hand, and rear faces that are directed away from that player when the card are held in his hand. Because the invention herein utilizes depictions of faces on the cards (see discussion below), however, the terms “front side” and “rear side” of the cards will be used herein instead of “front face” and “rear face”.
Generally, packs of cards comprise fifty-two cards, with the front sides divided into four suits (clubs, spades, diamonds and hearts) having thirteen different values of each suit (ace through ten, jack, queen, and king). The rear side is generally some distinctive design, or decorative picture or scene. Generally the depiction of the values is in the form of a particular number of designators for the particular suit. Thus, a card that is the two of hearts shows two hearts, the four of spades shows four spades, and so forth.
There are numerous alternative playing cards having different indicia or different arrangements of indicia on the front side and in some cases, different numbers of cards in the deck. Some of these playing cards have more than one value on the front side of the card, and may be arranged in a manner analogous to or the same as dominos. These include the playing cards of Paine (U.S. Pat. No. 516,165) which has six suits and three colors with the card front sides having two rectangular centerpieces which together are in the shape of a domino. The playing cards of Kingwill (U.S. Pat. No. 645,961) have identical paired domino-like components on each front side.
The playing cards of Moller (U.S. Pat. No. 712,566) are in 26-card decks having divided front sides with the suits in specified pairs on the front sides. While the cards of Schick (U.S. Pat. Des. No. 212,239) also have divided front sides with different suits on each half, there does not appear to be a strict pairing of the suits.
The cards of Hancock (U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,358) are in a 48-card deck with the front side of each card divided into two by a diagonal dividing line, while the double denomination cards of Gleason, Jr. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,916) make up a 52-card deck having a divided front side also separated by a diagonal line.
Nielsen (U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,652) provides a deck of cards representative of a set of dominos, which are held in the hand in typical fan-like fashion and may be played as dominos are or as cards are played. This patent sets forth many advantages for having dominos in the form of cards, rather than the bulky heavy domino pieces that are typical.
The indicia on most card front sides, other than the jack, queen and king, are typically traditional symbols such as hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs, or in the case of the domino-related cards of Nielsen, are simply round spots (also called pips) identical to the spots on domino pieces. These spots or other indicia are not used to convey information or to be decorative. Furthermore, the prior cards do not coordinate the design on the rear side with the indicia on the front side of the cards.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide playing cards where the indicia on the front side of the cards are face depiction spots, preferably face depiction spots that convey information, arranged in the manner of domino spots. It is a further object of the invention to provide cards where the design on the rear side of the cards may be coordinated with the face depiction spots.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention herein is a deck of playing cards having front sides with face depiction spots on each half of the front side of the card. The face depiction spots may be arranged on the two halves as are domino spots. The appearance of the rear sides of the cards is preferably coordinated with the face depiction spots. Other objects and features of the inventions will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the front side of one of the cards of a first embodiment of the invention having identical halves.

FIG. 2 shows the front side of a second of the cards of the first embodiment having differing halves.

FIG. 3 show the front side of a third of the cards also having differing halves.

FIG. 4 shows the front side of a deck of cards having an alternative arrangement of face depiction spots.

FIG. 5 shows the rear side of a card of the first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an alternative embodiment of a deck of cards of the invention in which the face depiction spots are animals, e.g., lion, tiger, elephant, zebra, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros, indicated on the center of each half of the card as L, T, E, Z, H, and R, respectively.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS THEREOF

The present invention provides playing cards having front sides with face depiction spots arranged in the manner of domino spots. Preferably the rear side of each card also has at least one face depiction that is related thematically to the face depiction spots on the front side of the cards. The cards preferably have the same generally rectangular configuration and the standard size of playing cards as known in the art; however, changes in the shape and size may be made without departing from the invention herein.
As used herein, in most of the embodiments of the invention herein, the term “face depiction spots” or “face depiction” preferably means photographs or artistic renderings of human or animal faces (heads) and may include a depiction of more of the chosen animal that just the face or head. The face depictions may be realistic depictions of faces or may be stylized, but are preferably recognizable as faces or as including faces. It is recognized however that any selected group of images not containing faces, such as scenes or plants or plain spots, may be used in the “face depiction spots” without departing from the invention herein. Again, to minimize confusion with the term “face depiction spots”, the terms “rear side” and “front side” are used instead of “rear face” and “front face” when discussing the two sides of the cards. Also, the terms “deck” and “pack” are used interchangeably herein.
FIGS. 1-3 are views of the front sides 12 of a sufficient number of cards 10 of the preferred embodiment of the invention herein to illustrate the preferred general arrangement of the face depiction spots 14 on the front sides 12. Each of the front sides 12 preferably has two halves 16, divided by from each other, preferably by a heavy line 18. As shown in FIG. 1, the two halves 16 of the front side 12 of a card 10 may be identical, having an identical number of face depiction spots 14, while as shown in FIGS. 2-3, the two halves 16 of the front side 12 of the card 10 may have a different number of identical face depiction spots 14. The size of the face depiction spots 14 may vary as suitable for the number of face depictions spots that are on the half 16 of the card 10 or as is deemed desirable. When the deck of cards has twenty-eight cards in this embodiment of the invention, there may be from 0-7 face depiction spots on each half of the front side of each card
These face depiction spots 14 are preferably arranged in the same manner as the spots on dominos as shown in FIGS. 1-3; however, as shown in FIG. 4, the face depiction spots may be arranged symmetrically about the center of the particular card half 16, for example in a circular or other regular form on each half of the front side, or they may be arranged in any chosen form by the designer. In the symmetric arrangement as shown in FIG. 4, the face depiction spots are plain dots 24 and do not include faces. One alternative arrangement is to have more spots than 6, for example, to have a circle of 6 spots with a central spot, so that there are seven spots on one side of the card. Having more spots allows the deck of cards to be larger, as each number of spots can be paired with each other number of spots on the two halves of cards, as well as with a duplicate side of the card, or alternatively, there may be the same number of cards in the deck with all halves 16 having face depiction spots 14 rather than having any blank halves 16.
The size of the face depiction spots 14 may be larger or smaller relative to the size of the card 10 than that shown in the figures herein without departing from the invention, so long as the face depiction spot 14 is large enough to be visible during use and is small enough to fit on the card 10 without overlapping any other face depiction spots.
Most preferably, the face depiction spots 14 are designed to show specific information. Thus, they may educate the purchaser or recipient of the cards as to a medical specialty of the source of the cards or may in other ways provide useful educational information to the recipient or user of the cards. As can be seen from FIGS. 1-4, a most preferred face depiction spot 14 for use in a plastic surgery medical clinic comprises a face having a cleft lip. Thus, in this preferred embodiment, at each of the locations on the front side where a corresponding domino piece has a spot, the front side of the preferred card of the invention herein has a face depiction spot 14 comprising a face with a cleft lip. As in the other embodiments of the invention herein, each face depiction spot 14 is preferably circular in external contour or placed within a circular outline, so that it more clearly is analogous to a spot on a domino piece.
Preferably, as shown in FIG. 5, the rear side 22 of the preferred cards 10 is coordinated in appearance to the face depiction spots 14 on the front side. In the preferred embodiment discussed above, the rear side 22 of the preferred card 10 has a face depiction 26 in which the cleft lip has been corrected. Such a face depiction on the rear side of the card is preferably larger than the face depiction spots 14 that are on the front side of the card.
When the cards are used to communicate information about a business or non-profit entity, additional information (not shown herein) on the entity, such as name, address and contact information, as well as advertising and they like, may also be provided on the card, such as on the rear side of the card.
Alternative embodiments of the invention herein include cards with other human faces, and may depict other medical “before and after” faces on the two sides of the cards as discussed above with respect to the preferred face depiction spot. Alternatively, the human faces may be any desired human faces.
In further alternative embodiments of the invention, the face depiction spots 14 may have animal heads (faces) or may also include a depiction of the whole animal, and the face depiction spots, as shown in FIG. 6 may occupy half of the front side of the card, so that there is only a single face depiction spot on each half. In the deck of cars shown in FIG. 6, the locations where a picture of a lion, tiger, elephant, zebra, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros, would be in the central area of each half 16 are indicated on the center of each half of the card as L, T, E, Z, H, and R, respectively. In a card game with single spots on each half of the front side, the players, rather than matching the numbers of spots on a half of the front side of the card, match the animal itself (e.g., lion (L) with lion, elephant (E) with elephant, etc.). In this instance, the rear of the card may be chosen to be coordinated with the animal theme of the cards, or may be related to a business or any other design. Other decks of cards may have any other chosen sets of spots, for example, fish, insects, birds, prehistoric animals, faces of movie stars, presidents, and the like, without departing from the invention herein.
Optional additional indicia may be placed on each card. For example, as is done in the case of standard playing cards, small indicia may be placed on opposite corners of the cards. In this invention, such number indicia as shown in FIGS. 1-4 preferably give the number of spots on each half of the card, so that someone who is holding the cards in standard fan-shape in his hand may know what the number of face depiction spots is on each half of the card. Thus if there are five face depiction spots on one half of the card and three face depiction spots on the other half of the card, the number indicia would preferably show 5/3 on the end having four face depiction spots and 3/5 on the end having two face depiction spots. Where there are animal depictions that comprise the face depiction spots, these number indicia may be replaced by words or symbols indicating the animals on the two halves of the front side as shown in FIG. 6 by the letters L, T, E, R, H, G and Z in the upper left corners of the cards, no matter which half 16 of the card is upward.
While it is preferred that the number of cards and overall design of the face depiction spots on the front sides of the cards of the invention correspond to the number of dominos in a set and their overall design of spots, included within the invention are decks of cards where the maximum number of face depiction spots on a half of a front side is not six. Thus, rather than having a maximum number of six spots (face depiction spots) on a half, there may be cards in the deck having more face depiction spots (e.g., 7 or 8 or more), thus allowing a deck with more cards. Alternatively, the playing cards of the invention may be part of smaller decks in which no card has more than, for example, five face depiction spots on a half. Preferably, the minimum number of cards in the deck to provide a sufficient number of plays for the players is 28.
The playing cards of the invention having multiple face depiction spots on the playing cards are preferably played using standard domino rules as known in the art. Thus, there are preferably 2-4 players who are dealt 7 cards each. The player with identical halves on one of the front cards starts the game, and if more than one player has a card with identical halves (or if no one did), the first to play may be chosen with a coin toss or other random selection method known in the art. To play the game, the players in playing sequence places a card down on the playing surface, matching the number of face depiction spots on one half of the card to a card already on the table having the same number of face depiction spots on one or both halves until a player runs out of cards. One half of each card being played needs to be placed adjacent to a card that has already been played, and in particular needs to be placed next to a half of the already played card that matches a half of the new card being played. If that half is not exposed (in other words if a card has already been played on that side of that half of the already played card, a new card cannot be placed there. Players pass if they cannot play. If players play in teams, if a member of a team wins, so does the team. If play cannot continue and all players still have cards, the player with the lowest number of points wins. Of course, other rules acceptable to the players may be followed using the cards of the invention.
For playing cards of the invention having a single face depiction spot (e.g., animal depiction) on each half of the playing cards, there are again preferably 28 cards, with 7 different figures in the deck of cards. Each figure appears 7 times in the deck, once with each of the other 6 figures and once with a duplicate of that figure. The numeric score kept during play is a count of number of cards left when the game finishes or the sum of the numbers on the halves 16 of the cards left, or alternative methods of counting and scoring may be used as desired.
While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it will be appreciated that numerous variations, modifications, and embodiments are possible, and accordingly, all such variations, modifications, and embodiments are to be regarded as being within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A deck of playing cards, each playing card comprising:

a) a front side having two halves; each of the two halves having at least one face depiction spot; and

b) a rear side having an appearance coordinated to the face depiction spots.

2. The deck of playing cards of claim 1, wherein the face depiction spots on the front side are arranged as are spots on domino pieces.

3. The deck of playing cards of claim 1, wherein the rear side has a face depiction related to the face depiction spots on the two halves.

4. The deck of playing cards of claim 3, wherein the face depiction spots on the two halves are human faces with cleft lips, and wherein the face depiction on the rear side is the same human face but without a cleft lip.

5. The deck of playing cards of claim 1, wherein the face depiction spots include faces of animals.

6. The deck of playing cards of claim 1, wherein there are one to six face depiction spots on each half.

7. The deck of playing cards of claim 1, wherein when there are more than two face depiction spots on a half, the face depiction spots are arranged symmetrically about a central area of each half.

8. The deck of playing cards of claim 1, further comprising indicia on a corner of each half related to the number of face depiction spots on each half of the card.

9. A deck of playing cards, each playing card comprising:

b) a rear side having a selected appearance.

10. The deck of playing cards of claim 9, wherein the face depiction spots comprise animal pictures, and there is one animal picture on each half of the front side.

11. The deck of playing cards of claim 8, further comprising indicia on a corner of each half related to the animal pictures on each half of the card

12. A method of playing cards, comprising:

a) providing a deck of cards according to claim 1;

b) dealing the cards to 2-4 players;

c) determining if one player only has identical halves on a dealt card, and if yes, selecting that one player to begin play, and if not, deciding a first player by a random selection method;

d) beginning play by placing a card on a playing surface;

e) sequentially having players play a new card adjacent a card already played by matching a half of the new card to an exposed half of a card already played; and

f) continuing play until one player plays all that player's cards or until no player can match half of one of that player's cards to an exposed half of a card already played.