From Reversi to Othello: How a Trademark Standardized a Game

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Goro Hasegawa did not invent the flipping disk mechanic when he introduced Othello in Japan in 1973; he standardized it. Where Victorian Reversi let each player place their first four pieces freely, Hasegawa fixed every game to begin from the same diagonal four square arrangement, removing an entire category of opening decisions and turning attention toward the corner and edge control strategy that competitive Othello is now known for. He trademarked the name and the fixed ruleset together, which meant that a game manufacturer could not simply sell Reversi under the old open rules and call it Othello.

The trademark strategy worked. Othello became the dominant global name and ruleset for the game within a generation, to the point that many players who grew up with the fixed starting square have never encountered the older open Reversi rules at all. The World Othello Federation, founded in 2005, governs competition under Hasegawa's standardized rules, not the Victorian original, which is why this atlas records Othello as an alias of Reversi rather than as a wholly separate game.