p2pnet - rss feed: Scrabble sues Scrabulous
p2pnet news view | Products:- For Facebook, S-c-r-a-b-u-l-o-u-s spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e.
With a capital T.
“Play Scrabulous, the coolest word game with your family and friends, right here at Facebook,” its inventors, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, once said on Facebook.
But, Don’t even think about it!,’ said joint Scrabble owners Mattel and Hasbro, ordering Facebook to expeditiously remove the game, claiming Scrabulous infringes their copyright.
Now US toymaker Hasbro, owner of the rights to Scrabble in North America, is suing the Agarwalla brothers a week after an official Scrabble was released for Facebook users in Canada and the US.
Hasbro is accusing them of “blatant infringement” of its intellectual property, says the Times of India, going on:
“The toymaker has said that the Internet game is a copy of its product Scrabble.
“The suit filed in federal court in New York City, names RJ Softwares, the Kolkata-based company owned by Rajat Agarwalla, 27, and Jayant Agarwalla, 22, and seeks unspecified damages along with a court order barring them from using the name “Scrabulous” for their game.
“Hasbro also sent a copyright notice to Facebook, demanding that it remove Scrabulous from its site.”
The story says Hasbro and Mattel, which owns the rights elsewhere, “had earlier reportedly sent cease-and-desist letters to the Agarwalla brothers but the siblings issued a statement vowing to keep the application live.”
Facebook, meanwhile, says it’s, “disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute; nevertheless, we have forwarded their concerns to Scrabulous and requested their appropriate response,” adds Times of India.
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coolest word game - Drop Scrabulous, Facebook told, January 16, 2008
Times of India -
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July 25th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I normally would side with the entrepreneurs on cases like these, but for some reason I feel no remorse for the Agarwalla brothers. Having never played Scrabulous, and just by looking at the image on this post, the game is a blatant ripoff of Scrabble, no ifs ands or buts.
These guys deserve the lawsuit and should pay Hasbro and Mattel their due settlement. The Agarwalla brothers should have done what every other Facebook “pioneer” has done and build a ridiculously stupid, meaningless application like throwing sheep and call it a day. Yes, they made a product that has garnered 500k users, but that’s only because they ripped off Scrabble.
Hell, I’ve got a great idea for a game, it’s called Riskless. It’s a game of world domination, where players compete to control the world. I’ll built it into a Facebook app and then put ads on it and make money. And please don’t bring up the Monopoly “spin-offs”, they’re either licensing the copyright or blatantly ripping off Parker Brothers.
Agarwalla brothers, come on, be original, use your programming genius to develop something of your own.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Of course,
If Hasbro or Mattel had bothered to create this for facebook ( they had no plans to do so ),
they could have been reaping the benefits all along.
Now, they no longer need to pay any developement team to create it.
They will simply sue this one out of existence, steal it , and profit from it themselves
without having amy of the developement costs … a neat business model.
leave a market segment empty.
Wait for someone else with vision to fill it.
sue them out of existence using your coroprate resources
claim it for your own
The Corporate way.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I think both sides have made mistakes in this. On the one hand, Scrabulous IS a blatant copy of Scrabble. On the other, Hasbro had no intention of making an online Scrabble game until someone else showed them that there was a market for it, so it’s not like Scrabulous was taking anything away from them.
Hasbro should have licensed or bought Scrabulous.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:26 am
” Hasbro should have licensed or bought Scrabulous. ”
That’s pretty much what they are doing now, except in such a way that
they don’t have to pay anything for it. And they call downloaders thieves.
The difference is they are acting under color of law.
July 27th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Come on, how many word games using a “board” are there? Millions. Probably at least half are scrabble ripoffs. How can anyone copyright the alphabet, or making words from letters? I think Hasbro & Mattel are latching onto the litigation income bandwagon.