Anti-monopoly

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Anti-monopoly
Game data
author Ralph Anspach
publishing company Self-published,
ASS ,
Piatnik ,
etc. a.
Publishing year 1973, 1977, 1986
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 6
Duration 90 minutes
Age from 10 years on

Anti-Monopoly is a board game for two to six people that was developed by the American professor Ralph Anspach . The game first appeared in 1973. The name of the game was the reason for a ten year long legal battle over the trademark rights to the name Monopoly, which Anspach won before the Supreme Court in 1982. Between 1976 and 1982 the game was therefore sold as an anti .

In Germany the game was published by ASS .

In 1977 the game Choice by Anspach appeared in Germany as Anti-Monopoly II . From 1986/87 Anti-Monopoly II was renamed Anti-Monopoly and the distribution of the original Anti-Monopoly was discontinued.

In 1987 the game Star Peace by Anspach appeared in Germany as Anti-Monopoly III .

Game versions

The first version of the game reverses the gameplay of Monopoly , initially the board is dominated by trusts . By collecting points of recognition, a free market economy must be created from the initial existing monopoly . However, the rules of the game were too complicated and the game was revised.

The second version of the game is more based on Monopoly. However, the individual players decide at the beginning of the game whether they want to act as monopolists or competitors / "free entrepreneurs" . Competitors / “independent entrepreneurs” can build houses immediately without owning a whole street, but their rental income is lower.

Litigation with General Mills

In 1974 there was a ten-year legal dispute with General Mills because General Mills, as the plaintiff and owner of Parker Brothers at the time, saw their trademark and patent rights to Monopoly infringed by the name Anti-Monopoly. These proceedings went as far as the Supreme Court , which ruled that the much older, but almost identical, patented game The Landlord's Game and other games with a similar name proved that Monopoly was already to be regarded as a copy of a game and a name. The patent applied for on the game thus turned out to have been acquired under unlawful conditions and to be null and void.

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