Answer:  When it’s not a Hans im Glück Meeple, apparently.  The term Meeple was allegedly coined nearly quarter of a century ago by Alison Hansel while paying the tile laying game, Carcassonne.  It was a conjunction of “my” and “people” and was used to refer to the characteristic wooden people-shaped pieces.  Since then it has been modified and the suffix “-eeple” has now come to mean game token (usually one that is wooden and shaped).

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In this way, The term “Meeple” is now used to refer to all sorts of other wooden game pieces.  This includes the sheep, pigs and cows in Agricola or Keyper, which are often collectively referred to as “animeeples”; wheat and vegetable resource tokens which are commonly called “vegimeeples” (or even “vegeeples”), and players of Ice Flow or Salmon Run might talk about “fish-eeples” while those with Bosk might move their “squirreeple”.  As such, one might well be forgiven for thinking that the term Meeple is open source and can be used freely.

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So Cotswold Games (formerly Cogito Ergo Meeple) might be forgiven for thinking the same when they crowdfunded their game, Meeple Inc..  That was until they received a “cease and desist” request from “a company” asking them “to remove all references to ‘meeples’ from the game as they have registered the word (and the shape) as an intellectual property in the EU.”  As a result, the a worker placement game where players compete to build the greatest board games in the world has been renamed Tabletop Inc. and now features “Mumans”.

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Whether this was necessary and whether Hans im Glück actually have the right to do this would need to be tested in court, but given the nature of the creation ans widespread use of the word “Meeple”, it is questionable.  Further, they only claim it as Intellectual Property in the EU—what about the rest of the world?  This point has exercised Corey Thompson (co-owner of YouTube channel Above Board TV and co-host of the industry-focused Board Games Insider podcast) and Marian McBrine (Gen Con Event Manager), who have responded by applying for the trademark in the US.

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Although they intend to protect the US trademark from predatory action (should they be successful in their application), Corey Thompson and Marian McBrine also plan to make it available to anyone who wishes to use it.  In the long term, this may prove unnecessary.  The trademark eventually issued in the EU in 2019 was for a range of of products (including software, jewellery, books, tableware and sporting goods), but not for toys and games.  This was limit followed an objection from board game publisher CMON, who argued (with considerable evidence) that the word was already in widespread use for general board game playing pieces.

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This objection was partially accepted by the EU Intellectual Property Office, but Hans im Glück has since registered “Meeple” as a trademark in Germany covering toys and games.  It was under this and the EU trademark covering the shape of the “original” Meeple figure that they issued the “Cease and Desist” to the folks at Cotswold Games/Cogito Ergo Meeple.  Although they are the first to publicly declare that they have received notification from lawyers, there are a huge number of well known games that could be affected (including Meeple Circus, A Fistful of Meeples, Meeple War, Meeple Quest and Rampage (aka Terror in Meeple City)), but also Oxford’s own board game café, Thirsty Meeples.

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There has been considerable community backlash though, so maybe Hans im Glück will adopt a gentler approach going forward.  At some point, however, it is likely that someone will test this in court and, in the meantime, there is a lot of ill-feeling which may lead to a loss of custom.