System for using trading cards interactively through an electronic network

Claim 1

A method of playing a game, using a plurality of trading cards, each card designating a currently living “game player” for a specific sport, who is actively engaged in playing that sport, each card having a unique identifier of alphanumeric characters associated therewith, said method comprising the steps of: (a) offering for use a limited set of trading cards, each card in the set having associated therewith an identifier of alphanumeric characters which is unique among all the cards in the set, each card also designating a single game player, there being a plurality of said game players designated by said cards in the set, wherein groups of trading cards within said set designate the same game player, with each card within a group having a different identifier of alphanumeric characters, and wherein at least some of said groups of cards have different numbers of cards than other groups of cards; (b) granting game playing rights to a subset of said set of trading cards to each of a plurality of card collectors, the game players designated by the cards of each subset forming a game playing “team” to be managed by the respective card collector; (c) registering with a game service provider selected ones of the cards from said subsets of cards, said cards being registered by their respective alphanumeric identifiers to said game provider, the collector of each subset thereby placing the game players designated by the selected ones of the cards “in play”; (d) determining current information about the actual performance of each game player who is in play; (e) advancing the status of a game between the collectors whose game players are in play in accordance with the current information about such game players and in accordance with rules of the game; and (f) changing the selected ones of the cards which are registered with the game service provider, and thus the game players in play in an attempt to improve the chances of winning a game.

Claim 2

A method of playing a game, using a plurality of trading cards, each card designating a currently living “game player” for a specific sport, who is actively engaged in playing that sport, each card having a unique identifier of alphanumeric characters associated therewith, said method comprising the steps of: (a) offering for use a limited set of trading cards, each card in the set having associated therewith an identifier of alphanumeric characters which is unique among all the cards in the set, each card also designating a single game player, there being a plurality of said game players designated by said cards in the set, wherein groups of trading cards within said set designate the same game player, with each card within a group having a different identifier of alphanumeric characters, and wherein at least some of said groups of cards have different numbers of cards than other groups of cards; (b) granting game playing rights to a subset of said set of trading cards to each of a plurality of card collectors, the game players designated by the cards of each subset forming a game playing “team” to be managed by the respective card collector; (c) registering with a game service provider selected ones of the cards from said subsets of cards, said cards being registered by their respective alphanumeric identifiers to said game provider, the collector of each subset thereby placing the game players designated by the selected ones of the cards “in play”; (d) determining current information about the actual performance of each game player who is in play; (e) advancing the status of a game between the collectors whose game players are in play in accordance with the current information about such game players and in accordance with rules of the game; and (f) changing the selected ones of the cards which are registered with the game service provider, and thus the game players in play in an attempt to improve the chances of winning a game.