Post originally by Rafial at 2005-05-04 13:18:00
Converted from Phorums BB System

The story behind the legal status of Monopoly is an interesting one in its own right <http://www.antimonopoly.com/the_full_story.html>. Parker Brother's claim to "monopoly like" games was based on Clarence Darrow's statement that he invented the game, which turns out to be false. Instead he seems to have formalized an existing "folk" game that had been around for some time previously. The ironic thing is that none of this would have been uncovered had not General Mills (the owner of the Monopoly trademarks at the time) tried to sue a small games inventor to enforce their Monopoly monopoly. Ah, sweet irony. Of course they (now Hasbro) are still at it: <http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=16951>