Battleship (game) Battleship (game) Battleship (also Battleships or Sea Battle) is a guessing game for two players. It is played on ruled grids (paper or board) on which each players fleet of ships (including battleships) are marked. The locations of the fleets are concealed from the other player. Players alternate turns calling "shots" at the other player's ships, and the objective of the game is to destroy the opposing player's fleet. "Battleship" is known worldwide as a pencil and paper game which dates from World War I. It was published by various companies as a pad-and-pencil game in the 1930s, and was
Rubber-Tip Pencil Co. v. Howard The small opening in the piece of rubber not limited in form or shape, was not patentable, neither was the elasticity of the rubber. What, therefore, is left for this patentee but the idea that if a pencil is inserted into a cavity in a piece of rubber smaller than itself the rubber will attach itself to the pencil, and when so attached become convenient for use as an eraser? That idea was the invention. But, the Court reasoned, an idea cannot be patented—only its mechanical application can be patented. Yet here the method of mechanical application was old and