Lawyer's Campaign to Save Monopoly's Thimble Pays Off

Brendan Pierson

New York Law Journal

2013-02-07 00:00:00.0

Richard Marinaccio

Richard Marinaccio, a Phillips Lytle associate and the reigning U.S. Monopoly champion, said yesterday he was pleased his favorite game token, the thimble, had escaped elimination at the hands of the game's fans. Hasbro, which makes the popular board game, announced today that it will retire the iron after an online poll showed that piece getting the least votes among classic tokens up for elimination.

Marinaccio won the most recent national Monopoly championship in Washington, D.C., in 2009 while playing with the thimble and went on to place third in the world championships in Las Vegas. Last month, he launched a "thumbs up for the thimble" Facebook campaign to save his favorite token (NYLJ, Jan. 25).

A new cat token will replace the iron after it gained the most votes among other proposed pieces—a diamond ring, guitar, toy robot and helicopter. Marinaccio said he would have preferred the helicopter over the cat, but was happy the thimble had survived.

"I'm glad to see that the thimble is safe," said Marinaccio, who is based in Phillips Lytle's Buffalo office and focuses on commercial agreements, licenses and mergers and acquisitions. "It's sad to see the iron go, but I understood one of the pieces was going to have to be removed. As long as it's not the thimble, I'm OK with it."