Tuesday, May 7, 2013

In the 1970s, General Mills sued an economics professor for making a parody game called "Anti-Monopoly," but the suit was thrown out because it was discovered that Monopoly was a ripoff of a board game first developed in 1903 called "The Landlord's Game."

Did you know that in the 1970s, General Mills sued an economics professor for making a parody game called “Anti-Monopoly,” but the suit was thrown out because it was discovered that Monopoly was a ripoff of a board game first developed in 1903 called “The Landlord’s Game.”


Monopoly has a long and checkered history. A Quaker named Lizzie Magie created the game in 1903. At the time, it was named “The Landlord’s Game,” and it was designed to teach people about the unfairness of land ownership.


 


Over the next 30 years, the game became popular with college students, Quakers, and socialists. The original name was eventually dropped and the board game became known as Monopoly.


 


In the 1930s, an unemployed heater salesman named Clarence B. Darrow saw the business potential of Monopoly and patented it. After successfully selling homemade versions of the game, he managed to sell the idea to toy company, Parker Brothers.


 


In an ironic twist, in the 1970s, the owners of Parker Brothers, General Mills, sued an economics professor for marketing a parody game called Anti-Monopoly. The suit was rejected on appeal when it was realized that the original game of Monopoly was, in fact, stolen.


 


 


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In the 1970s, General Mills sued an economics professor for making a parody game called "Anti-Monopoly," but the suit was thrown out because it was discovered that Monopoly was a ripoff of a board game first developed in 1903 called "The Landlord's Game."

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