Anti-Monopoly

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Cover of the 2005 Edition.

Anti-Monopoly is a board game made by San Francisco State University Professor Ralph Anspach, in response to Monopoly. The game was originally to be produced in 1973 as Bust the Trust but the title was changed to Anti-Monopoly. In the original 1973 version the board is "monopolized" at the beginning of the game, and players compete to return the state of the board to a free market system. The game has seen multiple printings and revisions since 1973. A 1984 version appeared as Anti-Monopoly II. In the 2005 version individual players choose at the beginning of the game to play either by monopolistic or competitive rules.

Anspach's game was subject to challenges in the courts. In 1982, after nine years of legal battles, Anspach won a trademark lawsuit in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The lawsuit had been brought over the use of the word "Monopoly" in the game's title. A later act of Congress allowed Kenner's Parker Brothers division to re-register the MONOPOLY trademark; both companies were subsequently acquired by Hasbro in 1991, which owns the trademark and rights to the game today. Anspach uses the Anti-Monopoly name under a license from Hasbro (as is stated in his website's legal disclaimers); he assigned the trademark to Parker Brothers at the conclusion of the Anti-Monopoly case and its appeals.

The game is currently in print, and is produced and distributed worldwide by University Games.

1 Trivia
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Trivia

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A similar game (in that it inverts the objective of Monopoly, but with the aim of giving away money and property) was described/invented by science fiction author Philip K. Dick. ([Manuscript "Diversion" 10-30-1958] "War Game" published in Galaxy, Dec 1959). Selchow & Righter published the game Go for Broke in 1965. In the same vein, Mad Magazine published a similar (albeit much more absurdist) game in 1979.

In Germany, where the original game was and is very popular, two more versions of Anti-Monopoly were created and popular in the late 1970s and 1980s: Provopoli - Wem gehört die Stadt, where squatters take over parts of the town, and Ökopoli where the objective is to take over the town from polluters.