Scrabulous

Mattel Gets "Scrabulous" Pulled From Facebook Overseas

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 25, 2008 - 11:50am.

New York - Following legal actions taken by toymaker Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) to get "Scrabulous," a Web knock-off version of its "Scrabble" removed from the Facebook social network in the U.S., Mattel (NYSE: MAT) -- which owns the rights to Scrabble outside of North America -- has compelled Facebook to take Scrabulous down in most of the rest of the world, the Associated Press reports. The one region where Scrabulous remains available in India, where developers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla reside -- but Mattel has filed suit against the brothers there as well.

Scrabulous Becomes "Wordscraper," Reappears on Facebook

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 31, 2008 - 7:03am.

Los Angeles - Scrabulous, the popular Web knock-off version of Hasbro's Scrabble on Facebook whose creators took the game down after being sued by Hasbro (NYSE: HAS), has relaunched on the social network as "Wordscraper," an essentially similar game that makes changes to its name and other characteristics. The move is no doubt aimed at testing the boundaries of copyright and trademark claims under current laws.

EA Claims Hackers Downed Facebook "Scrabble" Game

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 30, 2008 - 8:25am.

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) claims that malicious hackers were behind the inability to access its official "Scrabble" online game on the Facebook social network, which was downed yesterday and still unavailable on Wednesday morning, according to reports.

"Scrabulous" Knock-off Web Game Removed From Facebook

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 29, 2008 - 8:38am.

Los Angeles - "Scrabulous," the popular Web knock-off version of Hasbro's (NYSE: HAS) official "Scrabble" that was recently targeted with a copyright infringement lawsuit, has been removed from the U.S. and Canadian versions of online social network Facebook. "In response to a legal request from Hasbro, the copyright and trademark holder for Scrabble in the U.S. and Canada, the developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice," a Facebook representative told CNET News.com.

Hasbro Sues Makers of "Scrabble" Web Knock-off "Scrabulous"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 24, 2008 - 11:24am.

Pawtucket, R.I. - Toymaker Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) has taken its previous demands a step further and today filed a copyright infringement suit against the makers of "Scrabulous," a knock-off version of its "Scrabble" board game that counts over 510,000 daily active users on Facebook.

Electronic Arts to Launch Official "Scrabble" Game on Facebook

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 7, 2008 - 12:32pm.

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) said on Monday that it has partnered with toymaker Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) to launch a version of "Scrabble" for the Facebook social network and Pogo.com. The official version of the game will compete, however, with "Scrabulous," a knock-off version that counts millions of users. CNET News.com points out that the official Scrabble game on Facebook outside the U.S. (licensed in those regions by Mattel) claims fewer than 4,000 daily users.

Mattel Asks Facebook to Remove Online "Scrabble" Knock-off

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 16, 2008 - 10:14am.

London - Toymaker Mattel (NYSE: MAT), which owns the rights to the board game Scrabble outside of North America, has asked the online social network Facebook to remove an online knock-off called "Scrabulous" from its site, Reuters reports.

Hasbro Looks to Shut Down "Scrabulous" Online Scrabble Game

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 14, 2008 - 1:18pm.

New York - Toymaker Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is seeking to shut down Scrabulous, the online version of its Scrabble board game that counts 2.3 million active users on Facebook and attracted 70 million page views in the past month, Fortune.com reports. Scrabulous co-creator Jayant Agarwalla told Fortune.com that ad revenues from the game are "over $25,000 a month." Hasbro did not respond to Fortune.com's request for comment on the matter.