Scrabulous Loses First Round to Hasbro? (Updated)
Jul 29, 2008
It appears to be game over for Scrabulous. The free online game that has been among the most popular applications on Facebook is no longer available to all members of the social networking site.
As we wrote about in January, toy companies Hasbro and Mattel (who share the rights to the Scrabble brand) had sent cease and desist letters to Scrabulous' creators Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla accusing them of trademark infringment for the unauthorized knock-off of Scrabble. Hasbro upped the ante last week when, according to The New York Times, it filed a lawsuit against the India-based Agarwalla brothers and asked Facebook to take down the game as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Earlier today, Techcrunch writer Erick Schonfeld noticed that Scrabulous is no longer available to Facebook users in the U.S. and Canada. Instead, wannabe players are getting a notice informing them that the game has been disabled "until further notice." Hardcore fans can sign up with the Agarwallas to get further updates on Scrabulous' fate. In the meantime, Hasbro has licensed an official version of Scrabble to Electronic Arts, which debuted the game on Facebook earlier this month.
UPDATE (7.31.08): The Associated Press reports that Scrabulous has returned to Facebook with a new look and a new name, Wordscraper. The question is whether or not the changes will be enough to satisfy Hasbro's legal team.
Tags:
copyright, DMCA, Facebook, intellectual property, Scrabulous, trademark
