Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!bloom-beacon!husc6!cmcl2!beta!hc!ames!xanth!kent From: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Monopoly piracy Message-ID: <1546@xanth.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 15:53:47 EDT Article-I.D.: xanth.1546 Posted: Fri Jul 10 15:53:47 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 12:32:22 EDT References: <3@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM> Reply-To: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va. Lines: 43 Keywords: patent =/= copyright =/= trademark Summary: but wait, Steve ... In article <3@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM> denbeste@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM (Steven Den Beste) writes: About 5 years ago the copyright on Monopoly ran out. Monopoly is now in the public domain, and anyone who wants to can sell it. (Actually, maybe it was a patent. Regardless, it is now in the public domain.) Parker Brothers would love to have you think that it isn't so, but they don't have a legal leg to stand on. -- Steven C. Den Beste Bolt Beranek & Newman, Cambridge MA denbeste@bbn.com (ARPA or CSNET) I remember it differently. I think Parker Brothers unsuccessfully sued the maker of "Anti-Monopoly" for _trademark_ infringement of the trademark "Monopoly", and the court made the (widely booed) decision that Parker Brothers had lost its "Monopoly" trademark due to not protecting it (I say "maybe".) and that the names "Monopoly" and "Parker Brothers" were no longer linked in the public mind (it was this part that drew the negative press, and I agree with the critics). This follows along the lines of saying "xeroxing" instead of "photo-copying"; as long as Xerox doesn't protest, they are allowing their trademark "Xerox" to enter the public domain. In their case, it's probably worth it, to have their corporate name so closely linked in teh public mind with photocopiers. This in no way invalidates Parker Brothers _copyright_ on the design of the board game Monopoly, and it is this right that they have apparently successfully enforced in this case. Note that, unlike trademarks, copyrights are very difficult to lose by neglect (roughly every 50 years you must renew a copyright, or at least reassert your claim to it, but the fact that a text is widely pirated in no way invalidates the original copyright, unlike the trademark case), so the copyright is a lot easier to enforce. Now that I've put in my $0.02, would someone with a legal education and experience in the trademark/copyright area like to step in and make the definitive statement? ;-) Kent, the man from xanth.