Whether you live on Baltic Ave. or Boardwalk, this 1935 Monopoly Game patent is a perfect decoration for your office, game room, and home. It has been restored and digitally enhanced while maintaining the integrity of the original document.

"A board game apparatus including, in combination, a board having marked spaces or areas, constituting a path or course extending about the said board, said spaces or areas having, respectively, designations for real estate locations; dice or the like to determine the extent of the players' movements along said path or course; a set of miniature buildings adapted when acquired by players to be placed on said real estate locations: and a set of tokens or symbols shaped in representation of diversified objects, and constituting the playing pieces."--Charles B. Darrow. Filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office August 31, 1935.

The patent act of 1790 established the rules for submitting a patent application. Each application had to be submitted with specifications, a patent drawing, and if possible a model of the invention. Eventually, models were no longer required.

The National Archives holds nearly three million patent case files from 1836-1956.