The Wall Street Journal-20080117-Hasbro- Mattel Take On Scrabulous
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Hasbro, Mattel Take On Scrabulous
Associated Press
The owners of the rights to Scrabble are trying to shut down Scrabulous, an online version of the game that is one of the most popular applications on the social-networking site Facebook.
Hasbro Inc., which owns the rights to the crossword game in the U.S. and Canada, and Mattel Inc., which owns them elsewhere, say the online game infringes their copyrights and trademarks.
Listing more than 600,000 daily active users on Facebook as of yesterday, Scrabulous is one of the 10 most-used applications on the site. People can also play at Scrabulous.com.
The companies jointly issued cease-and-desist notices to four parties involved in the development, hosting and marketing of Scrabulous, according to a letter Hasbro is sending to consumers who contacted them about Scrabulous.
In a separate written statement released yesterday, Hasbro did not say who the four parties are, but said it was reviewing a number of options with them and hoped for an amicable solution.
Facebook and Scrabulous did not immediately return several requests for comment.
