Hasbro action threatens Scrabulous

 

LONDON - Scrabulous, one of Facebook's most popular applications, may be shut down following reports that toy giant Hasbro, owner of the rights to Scrabble in North America, has filed suit against the game's creators.

Scrabulous under threat
Scrabulous under threat


Hasbro has begun legal action in New York, naming Scrabulous creators - brothers Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, together with RJ Softwares - as the defendants.

The toymaker claims the three parties are infringing Hasbro's intellectual property rights for Scrabble.

Hasbro added that it had sent a notice to Facebook, the social networking site that hosts the Scrabulous game, requesting the removal of the application in the US and Canada as soon as possible. Mattel owns the rights to Scrabble in the rest of world.

Earlier this month, Hasbro launched a legitimate Scrabble version on Facebook.

Scrabulous, which was launched in July 2006, has more than 2.5 million users, including Yoko Ono and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who reportedly plays the game with his grandparents.

X

You must log in to use Clip & Save

 
 

All Comments

Awalla Fa'Shagba

Awalla Fa'Shagba - 25 July 2008

can i hear the screams of millions of scrabulous users? O dear

Mark Bridge - 28 July 2008

They'll all sign up to the "Sod copyright, save Scrabulous, keep Facebook free and bring back the stabbing option in Superpoke" group. That'll help.

Comments

 
 
 

To post comments please log in here

 
 

News By Email

You can sign up for our bulletins. Select bulletins you are interested in, enter your email adress an click the button below

Preview
Preview
 

Poll

How do you think the challenging economic conditions will affect new business opportunities for agencies in 2009?