First all let me say I have no axe to grind either way with regard to Gothic Chess or its inventor. However, I see a whole load of people who like to play the game here and I see the possibility of that being in jeopardy. So here's a suggestion. I hope it's seen as a constructive one by all concerned. It's certainly meant that way...

I've looked through Ed's patent and it's very specific about the way the pieces are arranged and which files they're on. Obviously this is very important to the dynamics of the game vis-a-vis Capablanca Chess. However, because the piece placement is stated so specifically (e.g. "the chancellors are located at e1, e8 respectively"), other arrangements of the pieces would seem to me not to infringe the patent.

However, what piece placement could be different enough to steer clear of the patent but still retain the desired characteristics of Gothic Chess? Simple. All we need to do is use a mirror image piece placement! The board is numbered and lettered in the normal way with a1 in white's left hand corner but now his king is at e1 not f1, his queen is at g1 not d1, his chancellor is at f1 not e1 and his archbishop is at d1 not g1.

Now this is not Gothic Chess as defined in the patent. And players would have to get used to playing with the king and queen sides swapped over, but people do seem very versatile here! And it'll need a new name (like Storm Chess of course! ) and a small amount of reprogramming from the Fencer and co. But surely everyone would then be happy?