Because of the lengthy court process, including appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers' copyright and trademarks on the game was not settled until 1985. Through the research of Anspach and others, much of the early history of the game was 'rediscovered' and entered into official United States court records. Īlso in the 1970s, Professor Ralph Anspach, who had himself published a board game intended to illustrate the principles of both monopolies and trust busting, fought Parker Brothers and its then parent company, General Mills, over the copyright and trademarks of the Monopoly board game. Even a guide to family games published for Reader's Digest in 2003 gave credit only to Darrow and none to Elizabeth Magie, erroneously stating that Magie's original game was created in the 19th century and not acknowledging any of the game's development between Magie's creation of the game and the eventual publication by Parker Brothers. History of the board game The five sets of the board game Monopoly depicted here show the evolution of the game's artwork and designs in the United States from 1935 to 2005.īy the 1970s, the idea that the game had been created solely by Charles Darrow had become popular folklore it was printed in the game's instructions for many years, in a 1974 book devoted to Monopoly, and was cited in a general book about toys as recently as 2007.
