The owner of the rights to the game Scrabble in
the US, Hasbro, is suing the creators of a Facebook version of the
game, Scrabulous. Hasbro says that the game is an infringmenet of
its intellectual property rights.
Scrabulous has been a phenomenon on Facebook,
with around half a million active games being played at any given
time.
Any players trying to play the game today are
greeted with the message: "The popular Scrabble-like Facebook game
Scrabulous has been suspended on the social networking platform.
The game has been the subject of a fierce rights battle."
Hasbro is about to launch its own version of
Scrabble on Facebook and has filed a suit against the two brothers
behind Scrabulous Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla and their company RJ
Softwares.
"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," said
Hasbro's General Counsel, Barry Nagler.
Hasbro's own version of Scrabble is in a test
phase with a limited number of users, with reports suggesting that
the game will be available for all Facebook users next month. That
game has been created in conjunction with games company,Electronic
Arts.
Mattel owns the rights to Scrabble outside the
US and is reportedly working on its own version of the game for
Facebook.
Hasbro wrote to Facebook earlier this year
asking it to remove Scrabulous, but Facebook declined.
"Over the past year, Facebook has tried to use
its status as neutral platform provider to help the parties come to
an amicable agreement," a Facebook statement said. "We're
disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their
dispute."
The suit alleges that Scrabulous infringes
Hasbro's copyright in breach of the US Digital Millenium Copyright
Act.
According to Information Week, the law suit,
which has not yet been published by the US courts service, claims
that the name Scrabulous is 'confusingly similar' to the name
Scrabble, that the game uses "essential and original elements" of
Scrabble and that the Agarwalla brothers have even admitted that
the games are essentially the same.
Lee Curtis, a trade mark expert with Pinsent
Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW, said that while the toy
company had a strong legal case, it may be wise for it to consider
other factors.
"On the face of it, Hasbro would appear to have
a reasonably strong legal case. Scrabulous is obviously based on
the well-known Scrabble game and the Scrabble and Scrabulous marks
are likely to be found to be similar by a court," he said.
"However, such cases often do not simply turn on the strength of
legal argument alone, public opinion often comes into play".
"Scrabulous apparently has around 500,000 daily
players, and the case of KFC challenging the use of the term
'Family Feast' by the Yorkshire pub, The Tan Hill Inn, comes to
mind. The public outcry to KFC's challenge ultimately forced a
rethink by KFC," he said.
Fast food outlet KFC threatened small Yorkshire
pub The Tan Hill Inn with legal action last year over its use of
the phrase 'family feast', on which it had a trade mark for use in
the food industry.
"It is possible that ultimately some licensing
deal may be agreed between the parties to settle the dispute," said
Curtis. "Hasbro ultimately wish to maintain control of their
Scrabble brand and could use the popularity of the Scrabulous
application to build goodwill in the brand further to the benefit
of all."
