{"id":2812,"date":"2025-12-31T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/?p=2812"},"modified":"2026-01-07T13:39:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:39:55","slug":"this-day-in-business-history-monopoly-patented-pass-go-collect-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/this-day-in-business-history-monopoly-patented-pass-go-collect-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"This Day in Business History: Monopoly Patented – Pass Go Collect $2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Monopoly<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

December 31, 1935: Charles B. Darrow patented the real-estate board game, <\/span>Monopoly<\/i><\/span> (<\/span>Patent Number 2,026,082<\/span>). Although Darrow has been given credit for creating the now \u201cubiquitous winner-take-all board game,\u201d it was actually invented in 1903 by Elizabeth \u201cLizzie\u201d Magie. Magie created the pre-cursor to Monopoly, <\/span>The Landlord\u2019s Game<\/i><\/span>, as an educational tool to help explain the exploitation of tenants by avaricious landlords. However during the Great Depression, Darrow was unemployed and in need of money decided to utilize and distribute the game for himself under the name <\/span>Monopoly<\/i><\/span>. In 1934,\u00a0 Darrow presented his game to the toy and game manufacturer, Parker Brothers, but was rejected by the company. In 1935, after Darrow sold over 5,000 homemade copies of his game, Parker Brothers purchased the copyright to Monopoly.<\/span><\/p>\n

After purchasing the rights to Monopoly, Parker Brothers learned that Darrow was not the sole inventor of the game, and paid Magie $500 for the patent rights. Today, Monopoly has been acquired by Hasbro from Parker Bros., and is now available in 37 languages, evolved into over 200+ licensed and localized editions for 103 countries around the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Smithsonian<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Britannica<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Read more from our collection:<\/p>\n

\"\"Monopoly, money, and you : how to profit from the game\u2019s secrets of success<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Behind the design. Monopoly board<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December 31, 1935: Charles B. Darrow patented the real-estate board game, Monopoly (Patent Number 2,026,082). Although Darrow has been given credit for creating the now \u201cubiquitous winner-take-all board game,\u201d it was actually invented in 1903 by Elizabeth \u201cLizzie\u201d Magie. Magie created the pre-cursor to Monopoly, The Landlord\u2019s Game, as an educational tool to help explain Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5598,"featured_media":2813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-updates","category-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/files\/2020\/12\/2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2812"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/gbsl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}