The case dragged on for ten years, with numerous appeals and overturned judicial verdicts, until Anspach and Parker ultimately reached a settlement, permitting him to continue using the name Anti-Monopoly and distributing the game. Anspach based his defense on the grounds that the game itself existed in effectively the public domain before Parker purchased it, and therefore Parker's trademark claim on it should be nullified. While preparing his legal defense, Anspach became aware of Monopoly 's history prior to Charles Darrow's sale of the game to Parker in 1935, and how it had evolved from Elizabeth Magie's original Landlord's Game into the version Darrow appropriated. In 1974, Parker Brothers sued Anspach over the use of the ' Monopoly' name, claiming trademark infringement. See also: History of the board game Monopoly ( Anti-Monopoly, Inc. Among other differences, competitors charge lower rents and can improve any property they own at any time, while monopolists must own at least two properties in a group before building houses on them and charge much higher rents.

This version plays more like the actual Monopoly game in that it is based on the buying and selling of real estate.

In Anti-Monopoly II individual players choose to play either by monopolist or competitor rules at the beginning of the game. Players take the role of federal case workers bringing indictments against each monopolised business in an attempt to return the state of the board to a free market system. Instead of real estate and public utilities, properties in Anti-Monopoly are individual businesses that have been brought under single ownership. The original Anti-Monopoly game begins with the board in a monopolised state, effectively the result of a completed Monopoly game. The game is currently still in print, and is produced and distributed worldwide by University Games. In 1984, a new version appeared as Anti-Monopoly II this version was updated and re-released in 2005 without the numerical designation. It has seen multiple printings and revisions since 1973. The game was originally to be produced in 1973 as Bust the Trust, but the title was changed to Anti-Monopoly. His intent was to demonstrate how harmful monopolies could be to a free-enterprise system, and how antitrust laws work to curtail them in the real world.

The idea of an anti-monopoly board game dates to 1903 when Lizzie Magie created The Landlord's Game, which later inspired Monopoly.Īnspach created Anti-Monopoly in part as a response to the lessons taught by the mainstream game, which he believed created the impression that monopolies were something desirable.

Anti-Monopoly ManufacturersĪnti-Monopoly is a board game made by San Francisco State University Professor Ralph Anspach in response to Monopoly. For anti-monopoly action, see Competition law.

Original monopoly game board