ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,508,496, issued on Dec. 30.
"Automated game board apparatus" was invented by Stephen John Thomson (Chelsea, Australia).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An automated game board apparatus configured to, upon receiving a command from a player, determine a path from an origin segment to a destination segment and automatically move a selected game piece from the origin segment to the destination segment; wherein, if one or more intermediate segments along the path are occupied by other game pieces, the selected piece is moved along the boundaries of the occupied segment; and wherein, if the destination segment is occupied, the apparatus is furth...