If you’re in any way interested in tabletop board games, you will likely be familiar with the term “meeple.” If you’re not, the term refers to the small game piece that represents the player or the player’s people, to be moved around the board or gameset during play. It has become a ubiquitous term in tabletop gaming, such that it came as quite a shock to a company seeking to release a crowdsourced game that the term is actually trademarked, at least in some countries and markets. They discovered this fact when they received a cease and desist notice from the publishers of legendary board game Carcassonne.
The company formerly known as Cogito Ergo Meeple received a cease and desist letter from “a company” at the end of May. In an update posted on its Gamefound page, the company revealed that it would be rebranding as Cotswold Games and its worker placement game, Meeple Inc., as Tabletop Inc.
“We were a little surprised as the term is used so frequently in the hobby. We thought Meeples belonged to all board gamers, it appears they don’t. We of course have zero interest in using anyone else’s IP so we think the best option is to do as they ask.”
Several details here are important. The publisher, Hans Im Gluck, asserts it has trademarks on the term and shape of “meeples” for the German and European markets. The Gamefound page appears to indicate that Cotwold Games is based in the UK, but it is also offering to ship the game to all kinds of other markets. Markets where Hans Im Gluck currently does not have a trademark on the term. It’s also the case that there are all kinds of other board games out there that use the term freely and have for some time.
There are board games that have animal shaped meeples, monster meeples, and even meeples that can hold weapons. Many games that use the word meeple, including Mutant Meeples, Terror in Meeple City, and Meeples and Monsters.
The term was widespread—so widespread that everyone just assumed it was “a board game thing” that anyone could use.
The other important detail here is that the term was indeed coined by the creator of Carcassonne in the year of our lord 2000… but wasn’t registered as a trademark until 2019. In the intervening two decades in those markets, just like here in America, the term became a widely used term to refer to people-type game pieces generically. Obviously, with no registered trademark, that would indicate that Hans Im Gluck didn’t police use of the term during that time.
Which indicates to me that the term was generic long before a trademark was registered as a result of the publisher’s lack of registration and enforcement of its use. So why in the hell this publisher suddenly has decided to fire off C&D notices over it is absolutely beyond me.
