Who owns the rights to sudoku

Kaji was a man who loved watching and betting on horse races, spending time with his wife and publishing a magazine that featured puzzles for curious readers. A good puzzle, he believed, could be solved and enjoyed by enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels. They weren't meant to make you think as much as they were meant to take you away from your world for a while. The philosophy with which he lived his life -- and made his puzzles -- inspired him to rework an American puzzle into what would become Sudoku, one of the best-known and most widely played puzzles in the world.

And Kaji, who called himself the "Godfather of Sudoku," was a once-in-a-lifetime creator. Read More. The publisher and puzzleman, whose Sudoku quietly entertained players in his native Japan and across the world, died this month from bile duct cancer, according to Nikoli, the puzzle magazine company he founded. He was We may also use analytics cookies to test new advertisements, pages, features or new functionality of the Website to see how our users react to them.

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Perhaps you want to publish an article as well? Sudoku, the number puzzle that gripped England from the fall of has now taken hold over 70 countries. Some newspapers in the U. Yet, in Japan, where the name and current version of the puzzle originated, sudoku is still relatively unknown. Nikoli, the Tokyo company that originally published sudoku, and Maki Kaji, the man who gave it its name, are far from household words.

Both names are well-known, however, by a devoted legion of fans, not for sudoku alone but for a wide variety of puzzles. The name sudoku is copyrighted in Japan, but Nikoli has no dibs on it elsewhere. Please click confirm to resume now. Sponsored Offers. Most Popular News. Most Popular Opinion. Most Popular Videos.