FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system and method for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of participants and awarding at least a portion of the assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality and, more particularly, to a game in which the single participant is selected by skill, luck or a combination thereof..

While games are widely available in many varieties, there is an on-going demand for new games which provide new challenges. Development of improved communications networks presents new gaming possibilities which have not yet been exploited.

Games may be generally divided into games of chance (e. g craps ; roulette and blackjack) and games of skill (e. g. ping pong, handball and tennis).

The development of the Internet has facilitated playing of games across a network. This is typically done for games of chance where a player plays against the house. In these instances, a monetary prize is typically involved and each player plays against the house.

More recently, Internet competition has expanded to include games of skill in which players compete against one another. These games typically do not offer any prize.

None of these games afford competitors a chance for direct communication one with another.

There is thus an on-going demand for, and it would be highly desirable to have, a system and method for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of

participants and awarding at least a portion of the assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality devoid of the above limitation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of participants and awarding at least a portion of the assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality. The method includes: (a) receiving registration requests from a plurality of participants (Pr), each individual participant Pi of Pr independently operating a user client in communication with a central server and accepting and pooling a contribution from each Pi belonging to Pr by means of the central server during a defined registration period such that a central pool is created; (b) applying a first predetermined-rule to Pr to determine a number of participants to exclude Pe and a number of participants to include Pp; (c) independently assigning each of the individual participants Pi in Pp to a single house H belonging to a at least one houses H, each house H includes a number of individual participants Pi selected from the group consisting of 1 and N according to a second predetermined rule; (d) requiring each of the individual participants Pi in the single house to participate in selection of a single participant from the single, house. such. that a Pp. includes a subset of the original Pp is created, the selection being accomplished by means of transmission of at least one selection choice to the central server by means of the user clients; (e) independently re-assigning each of the individual participants Pi in Pp, to a single house H belonging to a at'least one houses H, each house includes N individual participants Pi ; and (f) repeating (d) and (e) iteratively until a single winning individual participant Pi remains and awarding at least a portion of the central pool to the single winning individual.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of participants and awarding at least a portion of the assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality. The system includes a central server designed and configured to:

(a) receive a plurality of registration requests from a plurality of participants (Pr), each individual participant Pi ofPr independently operating a user client in communication with the central server and accepting and pooling a contribution from each Pi of Pr by means of the central server during a defined registration period such that a central pool is created; (b) apply a first predetermined rule to Pr to determine a number of participants to exclude (Pe) and a number of participants to include (Pp); (c) independently assign each of the individual participants Pi in Pp to a single house H belonging to a at least one houses H, each house H includes a number of individual participants Pi selected from the group consisting of 1 and N according to a second predetermined rule; (d) requiring each of the individual participants Pi in the single house to participate in selection of a single participant from the single house such that a Pp includes a subset of the original Pp is created, the selection being accomplished by means of transmission of at least one selection choice to the central server by means of the user clients; (e) independently re-assigning each of the individual participants Pi in Pp, to a single house H belonging to a at least one houses H, each house includes N individual participants Pi ; and (f) repeating (d) and (e) iteratively until a single winning individual participant Pi remains and awarding at least a portion of the central pool to the single winning individual.

According to further features in preferred embodiments of the invention described below, the method further includes: (g) permitting each of the individual participants Pi assigned to a single house H to communicate with each other participant Pi assigned to the single house H.

According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the individual participants Pi assigned to a single house H communicate with each other via a mode of communication selected from the group consisting of e-mail, a chat room, voice telephone calls, fax transmission and SMS messages.

According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments Pe is defined as the remainder from the expression: [Nc-Pr]/ (N-1) ; and wherein C is the smallest natural number that satisfies the condition:

N > Pr According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the number of houses H is determined by ascertaining the highest natural number C which satisfies the condition: Nc<Pp=Pr-Pe and employing the determined highest natural number C in the expression: H=N According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the H houses initially comprise X houses each having N individual participants Pi assigned thereto and Y houses H each having a single individual participants Pi assigned thereto such that: Pp= X (N) +Y.

According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments X is determined by the equation: X= (Pr-Pe-H)/ (N-1).

According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the method further includes: (g) employing the central server to temporally index each of the individual participants P; in Pr so that Pe includes the last individual participants Pi to register.

According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the method further includes: (g) employing the central server to temporally index each of the individual participants Pi in Pr so that the first Y individual participants Pi to register are assigned to houses H including a single individual participants.

According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the accepting includes debiting an account of Pi.

According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments the central server is further designed and constructed to apprise individual participants Pi assigned to a single house H of a way to communicate with each other by providing at least one item selected from the group consisting of an e-mail address, a chat room URL, and a telephone number.

The present invention successfully addresses the shortcomings of the presently known configurations by providing a system and method for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of participants and awarding at least a portion of the assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality.

Implementation of the method and system of the present invention involves performing or completing selected tasks or steps manually, automatically, or a combination thereof. Moreover, according to actual instrumentation and equipment of preferred embodiments of the method and system of the present invention, several selected steps could be implemented by hardware or by software on any operating system of any firmware or a combination thereof. For example, as hardware, selected steps of the invention could be implemented as a chip or a circuit. As software, selected steps of the invention could be implemented as a plurality of software instructions being executed by a computer using any suitable operating system. In any case, selected steps of the method and system of the invention could be described as being performed by a data processor, such as a computing platform for executing a plurality of instructions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. With specific reference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferred embodiments of the present invention only, and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates potential distribution of participants into houses of 7 members according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified flow diagram of sequences of events involved in practice of a method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a simplified schematic representation of a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a game played according to a method of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention is of a system and method for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of participants and awarding at least a portion of the, assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality which can be Specifically, practice of the method of the present invention, or operation of a system according to the present invention, facilitates playing a game in which a single participant is selected to receive an award from a central pool. Selection may be by skill, luck or a combination thereof. The selection process is executed according to input from all perticipants in the game at the time the selection is made. The award is typically a monetary award but may also be an intangible award such as points, rights or honor.

The principles and operation of a system and method according to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and accompanying descriptions.

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and tenninology employed herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 2 illustrates method 20 for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of participants and awarding at least a portion of the assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality.

Method 20 includes receiving 22 registration requests from a plurality of participants (Pr) Pr includes many individual participants Pi, each of whom operates a user client (Figure 3) in communication with a central server 62.

For purposes of this specification and the accompanying claims, the phrase"user client"generally refers to any device capable of communication with a sever and includes, but is not limited to a computer (e. g. personal computers), personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular telephone, regular telephones operating through the public switched telephone network, set top box (STB) and Web TVs, each of which is known to include an inherent or connectable display device. The term"computer"as used herein includes, but is not limited to, personal computers (PC) having an operating system such as DOS, Windows, OS/2 or Linux; Macintosh, Palm OS. TM, EPOCTM computers; computers having JAVATM-OS as the operating system; and graphical workstations such as the computers of Sun MicrosystemsTM and Silicon Graphics, and other computers having some version of the UNIX operating system such as AIXTM or SOLARISTM of Sun MicrosystemsTM ; or any other known and available operating system. User clients are characterized by having at least one input device and at least one display device. These devices may be an integral part of the user client or connectable thereto.

For purposes of ths specification and the accompanying claims the phrase "input device"refers to any device for entry of data to a computing device (e. g. user client or server). The definition includes, but is not limited to a keyboard, a computer mouse, a trackpad, a track ball, a stylus, a touchscreen and a microphone.

For purposes of this specification and the accompanying claims the phrase "display device"refers to any device for presentation of data to a user. The

definition includes, but is not limited to speakers, earphones, LCD screens, LED displays, CRT displays, printers and active matrix displays.

For purposes of this specification and the accompanying claims, the term "server"refers to any computing machine capable of exchanging data with at least one other computing machine (e. g. user client or another server). A single server may comprise an individual computing machine or a plurality of such machines acting in concert to perform a function requested by at least one other computing machine.

For purposes of this specification and the accompanying claims, servers and user clients may communicate one with another via any available channel of communication. For purposes of this specification and the accompanying claims, the phrase"channel of communication"refers to a telephone connection, a cellular telephone connection, an Internet connection, an infrared frequency transmission connection, a local area network connection, a radio frequency connection, a fiber- optic connection or a connection by a wire. Inherent in the idea of a communication channel is an open status during which data transmission may occur. In some cases, communication channels may also have a closed status during which no data transmission may occur. Channels of communication of system 60 are indicated by arrows. According to some preferred embodiments of the invention, additional channels of communication exist between user clients 64.

Thus, communication on a channel of communication may include, but is not limited to, a dial-up connection, a local area network, frame relay, an ISDN connection, a Tl connection, a T2 connection, a T3 connection or a digital subscriber line connection. It will be appreciated that other modes of connection are applicable, e. g. , satellite mode. The mode of connectionper se is immaterial to the present invention and therefore any mode of connection is applicable.

It is an object of method 20 to assign participants Pi to houses (H) for purposes of play of the game. Preferably, each H is assigned N participants Pi, although some H may be assigned a single participant Pi, as will be detailed hereinbelow. Preferably N is a natural number greater than 1, most preferably 7.

Method 20 further includes accepting and pooling 24 a contribution from each Pi belonging to Pr by means of central server 62 during a defined registration period such that a central pool is created 26. This contribution is preferably a monetary contribution (e. g. 7 dollars) but may be a contribution of points, tokens, rights or any other commodity. Accepting and pooling 24 may involve debiting an account 25 of each Pi of Pr for example by communication with external server 76.

For purposes of this specification and the accompanying claims the term "account"refers to any calculation of value (e. g. monetary indebtedness). This definition specifically includes, but is not limited to, a credit card account, a bank account and a customer account with a commercial entity (e. g. the operator of system 60).

Method 20 further includes applying a first predetermined rule to Pr to determine a number of participants to exclude (Pe) and a number of participants to include (Pp).

Pe is defined as the remainder from the expression: [Nc-pr]/(N (N-1) {Formula 1} where C is the smallest natural number that satisfies the condition: Nc > Pr {Formula 2} and where N is the., number of individual participants Pi required to fill a house.

After Pe is determined, Pp is determined by the equation: Pp=Pr-Pe {Formula 3} According to some preferred embodiments of method 20, Pi belonging to Pe may be eligible for a refund of their contribution from central pool 26. According to alternate preferred embodiments of method 20, Pi belonging to Pe forfeit their contribution to central pool 26.

Method 20 further includes independently assigning 30 each of the individual participants Pi in Pp to a single house H belonging to a at least one houses H according to a second predetermined rule. Each house H includes a number of individual participants P ; which is either 1 or N.

The second predetermined rule preferably includes ascertaining the highest natural number C which satisfies the condition: Nc < Pp=Pr-Pe {Formula 4} and employing the determined C in the expression : H=N' {Formula 5} In order to increase the probability that any Pi will be included in Pp, the H houses initially comprise X houses each having N individual participants Pi assigned thereto and Y houses H each having a single individual participants Pi assigned thereto such that: Pp= X (N) +Y. {Formula 6} where X is determined by the equation: X= (Pr-Pe-H)/(N-1). {Formula 7} This arrangement assures that in every round of play after the first round, H divided by N produces a quotient which is an integer.

Method 20 further includes requiring 32 each participants Pi in a single house H to participate in selection of a single participant from the single house such that a Pp, including a subset of the original Pp is created. Selection is accomplished by means of transmission of at least one selection choice to the central server 62 by means of user clients 64.

Preferably each round of play lasts for a predetermined amount of time (e. g. 72 hours) of which a portion (e. g. 12 hours) is designated for the selection process.

Preferably breaks between rounds are provided (e. g. 12 hours). It will be appreciated that the total length of a game is determined by the number of rounds required which is a function of Pr In the most basic embodiment of method 20, a player registers by means of user client 64 and is notified by that same user client of a relative position in the game. For example, the player in question may be notified: "You are player 5 of 7 players in house 16 of 49 houses in round 1".

Without benefit of any additional data, the player is obligated to nominate a specified number of other players (e. g. 3) from house 16 to proceed to the next round. For

example, player 5 may nominate players 1,2 and 6. According to this basic embodiment, player 5 would then be notified: "Congratulations, you have been selected by your fellow players in house 16 of round 1 to proceed to round 2. You are now player 1 of 7 players in house 3 of 7 houses in round 2." ; or "Sorry, you were not selected to proceed to round 2." However, according to preferred embodiments of method 20, each of individual participants Pi assigned to a single house H is permitted 40 to communicate with each other participant Pi assigned to the same single house H. This communication may be for any purpose such as, for example, flattery, bribery, solicitation of sympathy or sale of a vote in the upcoming selection. Communication may be by any available mode of communication such as e-mail 42, a chat room 44, voice telephone calls 46, fax. transmission 48 and SMS messages 50. For purposes of this specification and the accompanying claims, the phrase"fax transmission"refers to any information transmitted via a telephone line by what is commonly referred to as a"fax machine"or by a computer, or portion thereof, performing the function of such a machine. This definition further includes the same information received by a"fax machine"or by a computer, or portion thereof performing the function of such a machine..

Alternately, or additionally, participants Pi may visit each other's web sites or view postings on a bulletin board. Whatever the content of the communication, the purpose is to form an opinion about how to vote in selection, or to influence the opinion of other participants in that selection. This communication 40 serves to introduce an element of strategy and/or skill into the game which is lacking in the basic embodiment described hereinabove.

Preferably selection 32 is by voting. Participants are precluded from voting for themselves. Participants that fail to vote are eliminated from the game. Preferably, each participant votes for more than one other participant in their house (e. g. 3). More preferably, each vote is accompanied by a numerical score so that the likelihood of a tie is reduced. In the event of a tie a random number (e. g. the sum of all the player numbers in the received votes) may be used to choose between the players involved in

the tie. Once the voting has been completed, one player from each house advances to the next round.

Preparation for the next round requires independently re-assigning 34 each of the selected individual participants Pi to a single house H belonging to at least one houses H. Each house includes N individual participants Pi. The individual participants Pi constitute Pp, which is a subset of the original Pi.

The processes of assigning 30 and selection 32 are iteratively repeated 36 until a single winning individual participant Pi remains. At least a portion of central pool 36 is awarded to the single winning individual.

Preferably central server 62 temporally indexes each of the individual participants Pi in Pr so that Pe includes the last individual participants Pi to register. It will be appreciated that Pe < (N-1) in every case. Alternately or additionally, this temporal indexing is used to insure that the first Y individual participants Pi to register are assigned to houses H including a single individual participants in the first round of play. It will be appreciated that Pe and Y are each independently < (N-1) in every case.

The present invention is further embodied by a system 60 for assembling a resource from contributions of a plurality of participants and awarding at least a portion of the assembled resource to a single participant selected from the plurality.

The system includes a central server 62 designed and configured to implement method 20 as detailed hereinabove.

Preferably central server 62 is further designed and constructed to apprise individual participants Pi assigned to a single house H of a way to communicate with each other by providing information such as, for example, an e-mail address, a chat room URL or a telephone number.

It is appreciated that certain features of the invention, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention, which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any suitable subcombination.

According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, N remains constant for every round of play and there are a maximum of N rounds of play. Figure 1 is a table that illustrates all possible organizations of play for a game in which there are 7 players per house and a maximum of seven rounds. Alternately, N may change for each round of play. If N is changed in the middle of the game, additional single member houses and/or excluded participants may result.

An illustrative, non-limiting, example of how a game organized according to table 1 and employing method 20 implemented by server 62 of system 60 might proceed is provided in figure 4. The number of participants registered 78 (Pr) is 40.

Employing formula 1, server 62 determines that the number of participants to exclude 80 (Pe) is 3. Formula 3 indicates that the number of participants playing 68 (Pp) is 37.

These 37 players are divided into 7 houses 84 according to formulae 4 and 5.

The number of these houses to contain a single player (2) is described by formula 7.

The seven houses 84 for the first round of play are enclosed by a dashed rectangle.

Individual participants Pi (represented by stick figures) preferably communicate within the confines of house 84 in an attempt to influence the outcome of the selection which will occur at the end of round 1. This communication is effected using user clients 64 as described hereinabove. According to some preferred embodiments of the invention, user clients 64 are cellular telephones 66. According to alternate preferred embodiments of the invention user clients 64 are personal computers 70, Personal Digital assistants (PDAs) 72 or set top boxes (STBs) 74. Preferably each Pi is equipped with the same type of user client 64, although this is not always the case.

Communication may be via any channel of communication as described hereinabove.

At the end of the first round, one Pi is selected from each of the five houses 84 containing seven P ;, preferably by voting, to advance to round 2. In the two houses with a single Pi, no selection is required and advancement to round two is automatic.

In round two, there is a single house with 7 Pi.

At the end of round two, a winner 86 is selected, preferably by a vote.

According to method 20 winner 86 is awarded at least a portion of central pool 26. According to some preferred embodiments of the invention, winner 86 is the only

Pi to receive a portion of central pool 26 (e. g. 100%). According to alternate preferred embodiments, winner 86 distributes some of central pool 26 among other Pi.

For example, winner 86 is depicted in figure 4 as a stick figure inscribed in a dotted oval. Thus winner 86 is clearly visible in the second house 84 of round one as well as in the single house 84 of round two. According to a most preferred embodiment of the invention, winner 86 shares a portion of pool 26 with those Pi that elected him winner. For example, in one of many most preferred embodiments of the invention, winner 86 gives 10% of pool 26 to each of the two houses which elected him. The house then divides that 10% among the 7 members of the house so that winner 86 recovers roughly 1.4%.

Thus, if each of the 40 members of Pr contributed 7$ at the beginning of the game there are 280$ in central pool 26. Winner 86 collects 82.8% of this or $232.

Each of the six other members of second house 84 of round one and single house 84 of round two collect one seventh of 10% of 280$ or $4.00.

Preferably, registrants pay an additional fee for the privilege of registering. This fee may be per registration event or per time increment (e. g. monthly or annually).

Alternately or additionally, a portion of central pool 26 may not be available to winner 86 or to any of Pi. This portion may be designated for the operator of system 60 or for charitable works.

Although the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims. All publications, patents and patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated in their entirety by reference into the specification, to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated herein by reference. In addition, citation or identification of any reference in this application shall not be construed as an admission that such reference is available as prior art to the present invention.