When you are selling board games, it is important to protect your idea. The game Monopoly is one of the most popular games in existence. Charles Darrow is credited as the inventor of Monopoly. On December 31, 1935, Darrow received patent number 2,026,082. He hand wrote the board and cards, used wooden scraps for the houses and hotels, and took the charms off of his nieces’ charm bracelets to use as tokens.
However, two other inventors had games very similar to Monopoly. Elizabeth Magie invented The Landlord’s Game to teach people about different taxation systems. Dan Layman learned about Magie’s game and wanted to sell it so he created the game Finance.
Trademarks and patents are an important part of the law. Layman called his game Finance because his lawyers told him that ”monopoly” could not be trademarked. Magie had patented The Landlord’s Game, meaning that other companies could not sell her game without her permission When Parker Brothers wanted to produce, market, and sell Monopoly, they negotiated with Magie to purchase her patent and made sure that Darrow wrote a patent to document his changes to the game. Good games require a great imagination and a willingness to pay attention to small details.
Everyday Curiosity is a weekly electronic magazine for kids ages 8 to 14 that explores math, science, and engineering in the real world. Each issue asks one big question and has three related hands-on projects to go deeper into the math, science, and engineering behind everyday observations. The projects use supplies that are already in the house or could be found easily at a grocery store, general department store, or (in rare cases) a hardware store.
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