A game of MONOPOLY is a classic Christmas pastime. Each year we gather family and friends around the table, and in the warm glow of the twinkling lights we seek to bankrupt them or gloat as they head directly to jail.
It is no wonder though that this game causes arguments - the game we know as MONOPOLY is a development of an earlier game, first patented in the US in 1906 by Ms. Lizzie Magie. This recent article from the UKIPO explores the fascinating history of this contentious game, reporting the original purpose of it was...:
... a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences. It contains all the elements of success and failure in the real world, and the object is the same as the human race in general seem[s] to have, that is, the accumulation of wealth
In short, the game was designed to "demonstrate how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants".
IP has protected many things over the years, but it won't be able to save you from a rent demand when you land on Park Lane.
By 1906 Lizzie had patented and published her game. [She] held the patent until it expired in 1923 when she applied for another with a slightly updated game. She sold the patent to Parker Brothers for $500 in 1935 when the company bought up all rights for any game related to Darrow's Monopoly.
So, while Darrow created the name we all know, the game's ancestor was the popular Landlord Game created entirely by Lizzie Magie.
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