Hasbro drops 'Scrabulous' lawsuit

Hasbro is apparently content to call its contest with the makers of Scrabulous a draw.

The toy maker on Friday withdrew its copyright and trademark lawsuit filed against the creators of the ad-supported online application, according to court documents cited in an Associated Press report.

A game of Scrabulous on Facebook.

(Credit: Scrabulous)

The game, which rose to fame when its creators turned it into an embeddable Facebook application, was a word game that resembled the classic board game Scrabble. The game boasted an astonishing half-million daily users on Facebook, but was removed from the social-networking site not long after the lawsuit was filed in July.

The game manufacturer, which owns the rights to Scrabble in the United States and Canada, filed the suit against India-based brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, and their company, RJ Softwares. The suit had asked Facebook to pull the game, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and asked the Agarwallas to close their Scrabulous.com site.

The brothers subsequently modified Scrabulous' design and points system, and relaunched it as Wordscraper in the United States and Canada within days of its initial demise. The Scrabulous Web site relaunched as Lexulous.com in September.

The Scrabulous site launched in 2005 and the game was added to Facebook in 2007. But a Hasbro representative told CNET News in July that the company waited, "in deference to the fans," to file its lawsuit until it launched its official Scrabble Facebook app earlier in July. That version was created by Electronic Arts and is used by a mere 8,900 daily users.

Hasbro did not immediately return a message left seeking comment.

[QuetzalcoatlUSA]

Wow, from half a million users a day to 8,900. This is yet another example of a company who overestimated the value of their brand, and worse still, the flash-whims of a relatively small group of users. Those on Hasbro's board and legal department who advised against just paying-off the brothers or working out a licensing deal with their app must be kicking themselves for blowing a chance to ride a nice little wave. Jeers all around for litigation and wasted opportunities that benefit users.

[therealbean]

And you know that Hasbro did not pursue such a licensing arrangement with the brothers how, exactly?

[Pambie36]

You've got that right. I will boycott all Hasbro/Mattel products in the future. The Agarwalla brothers enabled me to play the game I've loved since childhood - quickly, smoothly and seamlessly - with people from all over the world. Every other application I've tried, including the one officially "sanctioned" by those pompous ***** of the International Scrabble Club and the glitzy, ad-laden Pogo game - SUCK.

[dgp7]

Maybe the lower numbers are due to Electronic Arts DRM only allowing one Facebook user at a time to play it? :)

[MSSlayer]

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving collection of scum.

[dracoaffectus]

hmm, now the official Scrabble app, which is apparently still in "Beta", has over 400,000 monthly active users, and Wordscraper has just under 200,000 monthly active users

maybe that explains why they dropped the suit...they just wanted their version to be more popular

[Dr_Zinj]

Hasbro = Has-been

[idfubar]

In response to 'therealbean': With any luck the *real* story of whether Hasbro sought to make nice first will come to light - clearly no one knows...