Hasbro has sued the makers of the popular Facebook App, Scrabulous, saying it infringes on the copyrights of its game, Scrabble.
Scrabulous has more than half a million players on Facebook while Hasbro licensee Electronic Arts launched its version of Scrabble on the social network this month has just over 8,000 players.
Hasbro has also sent a DMCA take down notice to Facebook, requesting that the social networking site remove the Scrabulous application from the site.
“Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties,” said Barry Nagler, Hasbro’s general counsel, in a statement. “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.”
Hasbro has taken previous legal action against Scrabulous. Mattel owns the Scrabble brand outside of North America and has sent letters to Facebook asking the site to remove the Scrabulous application.
The suit was filed in the Southern District of New York today and names Scrabulous creators, Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwall, along with their company RJ Softwares as the defendants.
Hasbro says it plans to launch more of its games on social networking sites later this year.
“Hasbro and EA have worked diligently to provide a great game play experience on Facebook, and we are confident that fans of the game will welcome a genuine experience highlighted by top of the line graphics, strong technical support, and of course, classic Scrabble game play,” said Mark Blecher, General Manager, Hasbro Digital Media and Gaming.
