Monopoly patent infringement

[Rob Kaper]

(cc:ing kde-core-devel as I couldn't found a kde-legal)
 
On Sunday 28 July 2002 05:20, Jonathan Drews wrote:
> Hello Rob:
>
>  I help on KDE docs. I wanted to warn you about your Atlantik game look at
> what I found:
>
>  MONOPOLY®, THE DISTINCTIVE DESIGN OF THE GAME BOARD, THE FOUR CORNER
> SQUARES, AS WELL AS EACH OF THE DISTINCTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE BOARD AND THE
> PLAYING PIECES ARE TRADEMARKS OF HASBRO, INC. FOR ITS REAL ESTATE TRADING
> GAME AND GAME EQUIPMENT. ©1935, 1936, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1961, 1973,
> 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 HASBRO, INC.
>
> from: http://www.hasbro.com/home/copyright.html
>
> also see:
> http://www.monopoly.com/pl/product_id.9070/dn/view_product.cfm
>
>  I really think KDE and you can get sued over this.

Atlantik does not include any artwork similar to Hasbro's Monopoly or any of 
the distinctive elements. All it does is render the XML monopd sends.

Most of the things Hasbro claims to be distinctive are actually not 
distinctive at all and were acquired unlawfully:

http://www.adena.com/adena/mo/mo10.htm

See http://www.antimonopoly.com/excerpt_court_ruling_original.html
for the Supreme Court Ruling. Hasbro only has copyrights on the artwork they 
added themselves, none of which is present in Atlantik nor monopd.

This very issue initiated the name change from KMonop to Atlantik and the 
generalisation of the software into a generic board game platform.

Rob
-- 
Rob Kaper     | Gimme some love, gimme some skin,
cap at capsi.com | if we ain't got that then we ain't got much
www.capsi.com | and we ain't got nothing, nothing! -- "Nothing" by A