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Which famous board games such as monopoly are unlicensed? Which games could you recreate and sell without having to pay royalties?

Is there a list somewhere of all board games and their license, or how would you go about finding out which games are unlicensed?

My google skills seem to be failing me.

Thomas Stock
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No singular registry exists. Nor, particularly, is it needed. Copyright expires after some 20-90 years, depending upon country and current laws.

So, anything older than 1920 or so is fair game. (Pun intentional.) But note also, if you simply reprint a work with an expired copyright, you can't copyright it in most jurisdictions.

The name, however, is another matter. Those are trademarks. US and UK Trademarks don't have a duration. Monopoly is, in fact, still a defended trademark, even tho' the rules have been in the public domain for years. Trademark laws vary widely; consult a lawyer for details of yours.

Trademarks are readily searched using various search engines by country.

There is compelling legal theory (and a little US caselaw) that says you can duplicate the mechanics of a game without license, provided you reword it. You cannot, however, use the trademarks nor original text/wording, original art, nor overly close art. In any case, the line s fuzzy, and varies by country.

aramis
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    When I looked into this a while back one of the things I specifically remember is that you cannot copyright game mechanics (like aramis said). That is why you'll find versions of Yahtzee, for example, with names like "Yacht" with the exact same rules but different wording for the instructions and different artwork, etc. I think what I read only applied to the U.S. (that is all I cared about). – Jason Dean Sep 07 '11 at 02:54
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boardgamegeek.com has a list of over 150,000 board games, and keeps track of which of them are in the public domain. To see all public domain board games, you can search for a board game that you already know is in the public domain in the search bar, such as chess. If you go to the page for that game, you will see "(Public Domain)" listed as a publisher, and if you click on it, you will see a list of all board games that are in the public domain.

HelloGoodbye
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  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community Jan 12 '24 at 22:06
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    While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review – Andrew Jan 13 '24 at 19:14
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    The question is literally "Is there a list somewhere[...]?" and this answer correctly links to such a list. The list has 900 games on it, and if "include the essential parts here" means copy-pasting this list on stackoverflow, not only would this make this answer ridiculously long, but that would probably be a copyright infringement, and a violation of both Boardgamegeek and StackOverflow licenses. I think this answer is good as it is! – Stef Jan 17 '24 at 16:13
  • @Andrew I'm also a little unsure what you mean by "include the essential parts of the answer here." Do you think I have done that with my edit (by explaining how to get to the page rather than only linking to it), or what is the essential part according to you? – HelloGoodbye Feb 12 '24 at 10:40
  • @HelloGoodbye it's the automatic response for review of essentially "link only answers" and this edit explains the link, but still is really just the link - in reality the answer isn't good for BGSE mostly because of what the question is, and how it is not considered on topic, all answers that really fit this question properly would have that issue. – Andrew Feb 12 '24 at 13:50
  • @Andrew Ok, so what do you mean that I should do with my answer? What are the essential parts that I should include (since you wrote that "it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here")? – HelloGoodbye Feb 13 '24 at 13:37
  • @HelloGoodbye The essential parts are the list, and you shouldn't be posting that here either for different reasons. Again this question was closed because it's not on topic, because it's the type of question (asking for games) this exchange site has decided to not accept, partly because the best answers for it are things that are discouraged, lists or links (to lists). – Andrew Feb 13 '24 at 14:10
  • @Andrew So it is not better to include the essential parts of the answer here, then, since you say that would be the list itself, which I shouldn't post here? Am I understanding you correctly? – HelloGoodbye Feb 28 '24 at 15:32
  • @HelloGoodbye The proper response to this question was to not answer it at all and vote to close it as off topic or flag it for moderators. – Andrew Feb 28 '24 at 18:08