How can I create a Monopoly Board Game of my local area without infringing on Copyright laws?
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at
9:48 pm
I’m trying to make a board game of Monopoly for a small Island that I live on. However, it’s very unclear as to exactly what the owners of monopoly have copyrighted. I understand that the logo is trademarked, however as to the rest, I am uncertain. Does anyone happen to know what you would have to change to avoid the copyright restrictions?
I am wanting this prescription online to sell as part of a Youth Business scheme 
What is copyrighted? The name Monopoly. The four corners. The railroad icons. The utility icons. The color stripe at the top of each property. The text and images on the Chance and Community Chest cards. Chance and Community Chest. The names of the properties. The rules. Starting to get the picture? The better question is what is not copyrighted. -opoly is not. 40 spaces on the board isn’t. Color groups are not. Check out any -opoly game by Late for the Sky and you’ll see exactly what you can do.
You are asking for free advice pertaining to law. There are more people in law school than there are lawyers roaming the earth for a reason. They didn’t all that time and money on a law degree to get stiffed.
So consult your local attorney!
It would most likley have to be the name. You probably can’t call your game Monopoly, call it something else. Don’t even call it island Monopoly or whatever, name it something original.
You can probably make the game exactly similar to it but you have to name all the stuff differently, and try to throw in a few new rules of your own.
Either you ask them first or you don’t sell it.
Actually, you are not the first to come up with this idea. There are actually several stores that sell custom (make your own) versions of the Monopoly game.
Try searching "Make Your Ownopoly" on yahoo and you should see several websites offering this. Also, since THEY are the ones offering customization, they have taken care of the licensing, etc.
Good luck.
Are you just trying to make one to play with friends? Copyright laws don’t factor in if you don’t try to sell it. And, if this is the case, like someone else said, you can buy Make Your Own Monopoly kits.
If you are trying to sell it my guess would be that everything is copy written: The name, the layout, the design, the logos. Everything.