About us

Dear Boardgame Community,
of course we have been following the discussion about the trademark in relation to the Meeple over the last few weeks. There seems to be a need for clarification here. About the background:
 

In 2000, Bernd Brunnhofer, owner and then developer of Hans im Glück Verlag, drew the shape of the character – now known as the Meeple – for the game Carcassonne and brought it to life. Unfortunately, the origin of the word is not entirely clear: However, there are reports on internet forums that Alison Hansel invented the word “Meeple” during a game of Carcassonne to refer to the Carcassonne game pieces. This was then used in various forums in connection with Carcassonne and thus linked. In the meantime, the term is also commonly used in mainly English-speaking countries for game pieces of all kinds. Worldwide, however, the term is still closely associated with the original form of Bernd Brunnhofer and the game Carcassonne. Without any further restrictions during a search or mention, you will find the original form by default.
 

In 2011, Hans im Glück also started to offer various merchandise items with this shape. Years earlier, we had already used the figure in several products and, for example, a ceramics manufacturer approached our publishing house because they wanted to produce cups and bowls with Meeple. These handicrafts have been sold for many years without restrictions from our side and are also in our office kitchen! In 2014, the name Meeple was also officially included in the rules of Carcassonne.
 

There have also been dozens to hundreds of agreements (some verbal, some written) with museums, associations, games clubs, etc. that use the figure free of charge. It was and is never in our interest to restrict these places of community, games cafés, events, clubs and community facilities – on the contrary, we support precisely such projects often, a lot and gladly with games, or even financially!
 
Over the years, the board game community continued to grow. As a result, more and more people used the form and the term. In order to protect our game and the associated brand, we were therefore able to have the shape and name of this game piece protected as a trade mark in certain areas in the EU and Germany after a few years in 2017 and 2021. A trade mark is a means of distinguishing a company and its products from other companies and also represents a guarantee of quality, for example. It is therefore important to us that all our game figures and all our Meeple (as well as all our other products) are manufactured in Germany or Europe.
 

In order to retain this registration, we must actively protect the trademark. If we don’t, someone else could commercialise the trademark on a large scale and claim it for themselves and restrict the use of the name and form for everyone, including us. We want to be able to continue to offer our existing games as they are. That’s why we have repeatedly contacted various publishers, merch sellers, etc. in the past who wanted to use the form or the name. Many have also contacted us proactively. We have reached a quick agreement with most of them – after all, we are primarily concerned with protecting our own products and preventing the commercialisation of the shape and name. In the past two weeks, we have also granted around a dozen licences to companies, games, authors, private actors and smaller shops.

Why was it different for Cotswold Games? The game has raised around 200,000 euros on Gamefound – that’s no small amount of money. This is roughly equivalent to an average board game release in its first year (lots of small releases compared to a few big ones). The name and shape of the Meeple were important elements of the game, so there was clearly an intention to make a profit with these representations. Not contesting something so obvious would call protection into question.

Since Hans im Glück is only a team of twelve people, we don’t have a legal expert on the team, so we wrote to the publisher via our law firm. We have since realised that this type of contact can be very intimidating and we have now apologised directly to Cotswold Games for this approach.
After discussing various options with Cotswold Games in response to the original message, Cotswold Games themselves have decided not to use the name and shape of the meeple in their game.

In the discussion, other games or publishers are repeatedly mentioned that use the name or shape. In general, we have always found a good solution so far, especially when we have been contacted directly before publication. For example, Strohmann Games, Meeplebox and others use the shape in the logo after consultation with us. There are also agreements with various other publishers regarding its use. We are delighted with all those who like the Meeple and are interested in using it as a symbol of the board game community.

Of course, the design and communication of our games play the most important role in this. Unfortunately, we may have neglected the representation of BIPoC or other groups, genders, etc. in past products.

For some time now, we have been addressing this issue, as you can see from the card distribution and design in the game Hadara, for example.
Of course, we are also working on ensuring a fair perception of all groups in all upcoming products.

Our games are often set in a historical context (Carcassonne in the Middle Ages; RussianRailroads in industrialization; etc.). Here we try to strike a balance between obviously non-realistic characters and the necessary respect. For example, it would be extremely unrealistic for indigenous groups from America to appear in medieval Carcassonne. In a scenario with dragons and fairies, however, “female knights” should also be able to appear.

Since we have to convey information that needs to be understandable in a limited space, we find it very difficult to consistently use phrases such as: the player/another player or similar.
On the one hand, we will use the gender star (*) when addressing players in general. And the so-called generic feminine when addressing a specific person.

Falls euch als Betroffene von Diskriminierung oder auch als sensibilisierte Person etwas an unseren Produkten oder an unserem Auftreten auffällt, das wir verbessern sollten, freuen wir uns ausdrücklich über eine Kontaktaufnahme. Ebenso würden wir uns freuen, wenn ihr als Fans unserer Spiele auch für eine fairere und gerechtere Welt eintretet. Lasst uns diesen, nicht immer komfortablen, Weg gemeinsam gehen. Denn nur dann können wir eine bessere Zukunft erreichen.
Umgekehrt fordern wir alle diejenigen auf, die sich nicht mit einer weltoffenen Gesellschaft (die jede Form der Sexualität, Geschlechter, Religionen, Herkunft und Hautfarbe als gleichwertig akzeptiert) identifizieren können, vom Kauf unserer Spiele abzusehen!

Wir glauben, dass uns diese Themen alle zusammen etwas angehen und engagieren uns daher auch sozial, wie ihr hier nachlesen könnt. In diesem Sinne wünschen wir euch ganz viel Spaß mit unseren Spielen, in der Hoffnung, Menschen auf der ganzen Welt zusammenzubringen.