I would like to know what your thoughts are on intellectual property theft of the board game Monopoly from my game Peace Of War. My game is similar but I do not think I am committing intellectual property theft. How can I be sure so I don't get sued? My game play like this: You move around the board buying pieces of land with your unique character with special powers . After you buy land you can build your army up and even fight each other with your armies and with your special characters. You can only movie with a roll of dice to different areas of the world map and once you go around a certain amount of times or right in the beginning, Im still creating it, you can start to buy land. How you buy land is how my game is similar to Monopoly but I do not believe I am stilling there idea. In my game you could even paint modules to play with like the miniatures from the game War Machine. So if you could help me I wold really appreciate it. I would like to know how someone can commit intellectual property theft of monopoly and if you think I am. Also how i can make sure I am not committing intellectual property theft before I start to produce my game, Peace Of War.
Is My Board Game Peace Of War Intellectual Property Theft Of Monopoly???
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Why
"How you buy land is how my game is similar to Monopoly"
I don't think you need to worry about IP. I would worry about your design. The way you get properties in monopoly is a very bad mechanism. Why are you copying it?
What is it about your game that you need to let players get land in such a random way?
No
Don't worry about it.
Now, if your player tokens look like little dogs or top hats or wheelbarrows, then you might be concerned... :)
Hmm... Not sure about that!?
I have seen DESIGNERS of games similar to Monopoly and it has to do with the properties on the board. If they are RECTANGULAR with the NAME of the property in a colored RECTANGLE above the property itself. Well then I believe there is a DESIGN copyright "out-there" which prohibits you RE-CREATING the Monopoly BOARD.
So if your BOARD is like Monopoly square with the properties going AROUND it... Well then you need to take special note of HOW you design the Property SPACES.
Getting around this provision is easy. You don't make the PROPERTY NAMES "rectangular". You can make them HIGHER on one side and then connect with the NORMAL side (giving you a SHAPE which is NOT rectangular).
Some copies have gone so much to make this top part a CURVE, jazzing up the PROPERTY NAMES...
Also PART of that same DESIGN copyright are "Free Parking", "Go-to Jail", "Jail" and the "Start" square. You can't use those SPACES in any way...
Here is a SAMPLE:
https://www.route66news.com/2018/10/03/kingman-has-own-game-kingman-opoly/
You may not LIKE the measures that they have TAKEN. But they are NECESSARY in order NOT TO be in breach of a DESIGN COPYRIGHT. Take a look at that BOARD sample and you will UNDERSTAND immediately what I am talking about.
Cheers and do be careful!
Note #1: As a side-note, DESIGN Copyrights are NOT like patents... They don't EXPIRE. But they are very SPECIFIC in nature. And for Monopoly the copyright is with the BOARD specifically. The Route 66 sample Kingman-Opoly shows exactly HOW to get around the "copyright".
Don't LAUGH... This is true and serious. Hasbro has a secure copyright on their MONOPOLY BOARD. I wouldn't design any similar unless you take the proper precautions as shown in the Route 66 Kingman-Opoly.