Makers of Scrabble Sue Makers of Scrabulous
Remember that Facebook-based Scrabble knock-off we told you about, Scrabulous? Well we knew it ruffled Hasbro's feathers, but making the lil' Scrabble-wanna-be obsolete and crushing it like a bug looks like it won't be enough for the board game super power. Hot on the heels of the official EA-developed Scrabble Facebook application's release, Hasbro has announced it will be sueing the makers of Scrabulous for copyright and trademark infringement for unspecified financial damages.
Hasbro has also sought to have Facebook block Scrabulous completely, but the social network site has so far refused to be dragged in to the fray. However, by refusing to block the Scrabble-clone, Facebook risks its legal immunity. Service providers are protected from responsibility for their users' actions, unless made aware of a specific infringement.
Whatever the final outcome, it does appear that Hasbro is gearing up for an all out war. [Source: AOL News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick Kellet @ Jul 28th 2008 12:53PM
I publish a board game GiftTRAP ( http://www.gifttrap.com/ ) and I'd be happy if someone was creating half a million conversations about my brand every day.
Hasbro and Mattel have benefited from sales increases due to the born again popularity of their cash-cow game. They sell over a million copies a year when really nobody really needs another copy.
I'm sure word games are seeing a resurgence. I know Bananagrams is selling well in stores and they are about to release a Facebook app, no doubt to try and grab a bunch of Scrabulous users before the get zapped.
Creating a loyal following like Scrabulous is an impressive achievement, I have total respect for the Scrabulous guys.
We created a Facebook app in the vein of Free Gifts to help promote our game but getting your social app moving is no mean feat. Translating a board game to an online game is far from obvious.
The Free Gifts apps get 100k daily active users on Facebook, which is pretty cool. Our board game precedes the whole virtual gift trend, but it's all about timing and reach.
Check out our app here; http://apps.new.facebook.com/gifttrap/
Unlike the Free Gifts app your friend gets to choose their own gift, the question is will you match. We have turned virtual gifts into a game a bit like Secret Santa.
The GiftTRAP board game is on sale in Barnes and Noble right now which is pretty cool (no doubt next to Scrabble and Bananagrams).
I hope Facebook doesn't drop Scrabulous. My sense is they will, but it's hard to call. They could lose a lot of traffic.
It will be interesting to see what people do over time.
Stuff that takes off on the web seems to have an edge to it and a legal copy of Scrabble might not have that. The whole thing could have peaked, but I'm guessing not.