Hi guys, I'm thinking about making an online flash Monopoly game... Is it possible to do from a legal point? Will I have to call it something else? Any thoughts?
It would be trademark infringement to use the name "Monopoly" or to copy their theme, without their permission.
Oh, it's much worse than a trademark infringement, it would (IMHO) also be a clear case of copyright infringement. The design of the board, and the names of the streets and railroads, and the text of the cards are all copyrightable components. Don't mess with them, that's a big company with lots of lawyers.
Why would the street names and railroads be copyrighted? It's a public place, i think the only one who can hold copyright to street names are the government of the specific place, no one else... Correct me if i'm wrong...
But you have to consider the manner in which they're using the names. They become copyrighted as they're aspects of the game.
The simple thing is that it's not worth the risk. Just change the names around a bit. Plenty of games have ripped off the monopoly theme, so you should be safe in that aspect (look up Corporate pursuit, or any of the games that US cities make about themselves).
And plenty of those individuals have been sued for doing so. Many years ago when I worked for my city gov't they used a pic of a humorous local version of a monopoly board on a city pamphlet. It didn't take long for that to get pulled and all the copies shredded when the Monopoly lawyers came a calling. There are tons of knockoffs (dogopoly, catopoly, etc...) out there but the ones you see are generally licensed.
Interesting, I hadn't heard about those guys getting sued. I guess the game idea could be considered intellectual property.