Elizabeth Magie was granted her patent for The Landlord’s Game in 1904.
Magie’s patented game used a board with properties, rents, railroads, and other mechanisms that later became associated with Monopoly. She designed it to illustrate economic ideas, including the effects of land ownership and rent. Her patent is an important part of Monopoly’s early history because it predates Parker Brothers’ commercial publication of Monopoly by decades.
Charles Darrow was long promoted as Monopoly’s inventor, but historians have documented the game’s wider development through Magie and other players and designers. Parker Brothers bought Magie’s patent in 1935 as part of its efforts to secure rights connected with the game.
The patent date is therefore a key historical milestone, not the publication date of the familiar Monopoly edition.