'Scrabulous' disappears from Facebook after Hasbro suit

Facebook users in the U.S. and Canada can no longer access Scrabulous, the faux-Scrabble game that quickly became one of the most popular applications on its developer platform.

This was done independently on behalf of the Scrabulous creators, a Facebook representative told CNET News in an e-mail Tuesday. "In response to a legal request from Hasbro, the copyright and trademark holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, the developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice," the e-mail explained.

The game's disappearance comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed last week by Hasbro, the game manufacturer that owns the rights to Scrabble in the United States and Canada. In the suit, Hasbro named as defendants the creators of Scrabulous--India-based brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, and their company, RJ Softwares. The suit asked Facebook to pull the game, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and asked the Agarwallas to close their Scrabulous.com site.

That hasn't happened completely, though. Outside the U.S. and Canada, the rights to Scrabble are owned by game company Mattel, so Hasbro doesn't have jurisdiction there. Both game companies have released separate official Scrabble games for the Facebook platform. Meanwhile, the Scrabulous.com site, which existed before the Facebook application, is still working just fine.

Hasbro representatives were not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

When Hasbro initially filed its suit last week, Facebook responded in this way: "Over the past year, Facebook has tried to use its status as neutral platform provider to help the parties come to an amicable agreement," the statement sent to CNET News.com read. "We're disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute; nevertheless, we have forwarded their concerns to Scrabulous and requested their appropriate response."

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had said in speeches that he was a fan of Scrabulous. That was before Hasbro started making it clear earlier this year that it wanted the game taken down.

Accessing the Scrabulous application on Facebook now leads to a message that states, "Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice" and allows members to submit their e-mail addresses to the Scrabulous creators to receive updates.

This post was updated at 7:31 a.m. PDT with comment from Facebook.

[samkass]

Hasbro should just make a deal with these guys and dump their agreement with EA. The Scrabulous folks have shown an ability to make customers happy profitably, and that's what business is all about.

[skimike4]

Word on the street is that Hasbro tried to make a deal but Scrabulous wanted way more money than Hasbro thought they were worth.

[sanenazok]

The problem with giving the Indians money is that it's pretty easy to make an online scrabble game. Heck I could throw together a word game like that in a few days. The value to the game is the intellectual property, and this is what Hasbro claims it owns. So if the Indians want money, Hasbro is probably unwilling to pay them more than a pittance since the game ain't worth much to Hasbro.

The last thing Hasbro wants to risk is for the word "scrabble" to become generic. They have to fight this, sorry. It's a shame the Indians didn't make their own word-game and instead tried free-riding on the recognition of scrabble.

[ikramerica--2008]

The other problem with giving them money is the game is written poorly and buggy. Copyright protection is about intellectual property, but trademark infringement is about marketplace confusion and quality control. There is no doubt that "Scrabulous" was meant to create marketplace confusion, nor is there any doubt in my mind that quality control is subpar and damages Hasbro's reputation for putting out quality products.

[welovescrabulous]

Scrabulous lovers and people complaining that Hasbro's Scrabble doesn't work are fighting back with Facebook groups: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37928471248 and http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=75441

[sanenazok]

Wow one of the complaint groups has 152 members! This would be significant if Facebook had a few hundred members - too bad Facebook has a hundred MILLION accounts. So I don't see how does any of this matter...

[ikramerica--2008]

who cares?

[Lerianis]

Frankly, Scrabble has been around long enough that the trademark should have expired and the patent on the game should have expired by now. It has been around for..... what, 50 YEARS now? No, the patent should have expired and ANYONE should have been able to make their own knockoff version of that patented item.

[sanenazok]

I don't even think a patent on the game existed...the problem is the name of the game and its overall appearance. Both of these are trademarks of the owner of Scrabble, be it Hasbro or Mattell.

[sachman1]

Hasbro/Mattel are probably loosing quite a bit of goodwill IMO...

http://tinyurl.com/6yhnxb

[danielz40]

Get a clue people. Hasbro and Mattel own this item, and just come someone comes along and makes a different, possibly better, version does not give them the legal right to do so. Otherwise, everyone would do it, it's not that hard to slightly improve someone else's idea. They have the rights to the game, and just cause some Euro-Indians want to copy it doesn't make it right. After all, they are trying to corner the market on programmers and tech support. Can anyone say Microsoft overseas tech support?