Google has pending patent on my idea. What to do?

When you were bootstrapping, what were the online resources you used for patent searching?

• The patent is about a game's mechanics. I've found these: http://ep.espacenet.com/?locale=EN_ep http://patft.uspto.gov/ https://www.google.com/?tabm=pts&hl=en http://www.patentarcade.com/p/patents.html http://www.freepatentsonline.com/ http://www.patexia.com/ip-research http://scholar.google.com/ Any ways of tackling this different from these?: http://www.ehow.com/how_4899582_patent-game-idea.html http://www.ehow.com/how_10054413_game-patented.html http://www.ehow.com/how_5798493_patent-ideas-new-game-inventions.html I'm going to my local patent office to file a provisional patent for the first time. Before I talk to a lawyer I'm going to use as much resources online and come prepared. Do you have any tips? See the comment under 's answer for further explanation of the goal of all of this. In summary: I plan to put up a kickstarter / indiegogo, with the patent pending sign and the overview of the game. Learn how to properly and professionally approach Indie Devs. Learn how to convinced Indie Devs to commit to making the game before posting it to Kickstarter stating that if it's funded they'll build it. The point is to validate the idea with the least expenses possible and have the community pay for it and use most of the game for free.

• Answer:

  Don't patent a game idea, or a game mechanic.  Imagine if id Software had patented the FPS...we wouldn't have had Halo, or the Half-Life series, or any of the innumerable (non-ID-created) FPS games. Or Minecraft, as Markus "Notch" Persson called it, "This is a very early test of an Infiniminer clone I'm working on..." If Zachary Barth, the developer of Infiniminer had patented a "procedurally generated block-based mining/world deformation and building mechanic", he could technically have prevented Minecraft from being released. I don't want http://bgr.com/2011/09/21/patent-trolls-cost-tech-companies-500-billion-kill-innovation/ to happen to the game industry. And regardless, you don't need to patent a game mechanic/game idea. The game industry is fortunately free of the awful litigation and patent trolls that plague many other sectors.  Original, innovative game ideas that are properly-executed rise above the rest.  People want the original game, not an (almost-always) inferior clone.