Hasbro has sent a notice to Facebook to remove the popular Scrabulous application from the social network. Scrabulous is based on the well-known Scrabble board game.
The
fight between Hasbro and Scrabulous has been going on for months, but now it is reaching a climax. Hasbro sent a
DMCA notice to Facebook today to remove the Scrabulous game.
Hasbro also has filed a lawsuit against the founders of Scrabulous, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla for violating its copyrights. Recently the Agarwalla brothers gave a special interview about this game to David Silverberg in
Digital Journal.
Facebook representatives did not immediately answer requests for comment.
Barry Nagler, Hasbro's general counsel, said in a
statement.
Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties…We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand.
Mattel, which owns the Scrabble brand outside the U.S. and Canada, has also requested Facebook to remove the software. But there was a huge protest on Facebook when several members started groups protesting this action. Mattel briefly withdrew and allowed Scrabulous application to continue. Real Networks started a
legal version of the Scrabble game, but it didn’t elevate to Scrabulous's popularity.
Earlier this month, Electronic Arts also
introduced a Scrabble game on Facebook. But I think it is available only for U.S. and Canadian users.
Scrabulous founders and Facebook have not responded to the DMCA notice and lawsuit.
