Backgammon and legal issues?

Hello,

I am interested in writing a computer backgammon AI, and would be
thankful for pointers. I am only just starting out with researching, and
have found the homepage of TD Gammon (
http://www.research.ibm.com/massive/tdl.html ). I haven't read it in
detail yet, but I could imagine that it would actually give me enough
information to implement a good AI. But that leads me to the question of
legality with regards to just using an AI mechanism somebody else has
invented? I want to create a commercial product.

Many thanks in advance for any help!


Bjoern



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Bjoern <bjoern_p1 DeleteThis @gmx.net> wrote in message news:<2lhrcmFcoj4bU1 DeleteThis @uni-berlin.de>...
> Hello,
>
> I am interested in writing a computer backgammon AI, and would be
> thankful for pointers. I am only just starting out with researching, and
> have found the homepage of TD Gammon (
> http://www.research.ibm.com/massive/tdl.html ). I haven't read it in
> detail yet, but I could imagine that it would actually give me enough
> information to implement a good AI. But that leads me to the question of
> legality with regards to just using an AI mechanism somebody else has
> invented? I want to create a commercial product.

There's no legal problems. AFAIK the technique is unrestricted by
patents. Most modern commercial and non-commercial backgammon engines
use the TD-Gammon technique.

Imran