The Brand

By Mari-Elise Gates

Many Facebook users who enjoy the Scrabulous application may soon be out of letters.

© 2008 Heather Wells. Used by Permission

Mattel, the makers of the popular crossword board game Scrabble, have asked Facebook, the online social-networking site, to remove the Scrabulous application. Mattel claims that Facebook’s gaming application infringes the company’s copyrights and trademarks. Though Scrabulous has a disclaimer stating that it is not Scrabble, the online game has identical rules to the board game. Scrabulous receives over 600,000 daily players on Facebook, and is ranked as one of the ten most used applications on the site. Players can also visit Scrabulous.com to play the word game.

Hasbro, Inc., the world’s second-largest toy and game company, owns the rights to Scrabble in the United States and Canada, while Mattel, the world’s largest toy and game company, owns the rights to Scrabble in the rest of the world.

Hasbro and Mattel jointly sent cease-and-desist letters to four parties involved in the creation and marketing of Scrabulous. A representative from Mattel stated that letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States asking the site to remove the application. A representative of Hasbro stated that the company was negotiating with the parties and hoped to reach an agreement. The company says it will be forced to close the site and its associated distribution points if it cannot reach an agreement with the parties.

Scrabulous was created by brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, from Calcutta, India, after they failed to find an online Scrabble site that they liked. Hasbro issued a letter encouraging fans of Scrabulous to use legal Scrabble websites. However, fans of the game are protesting and have created a “Save Scrabulous” group on Facebook. Gamers are also protesting through the Hasbro and Mattel websites.

Scrabulous’ co-developer Jayant Ararwalla refuses to comment on the issue, as did a Facebook representative in the United Kingdom. This word battle between Facebook and Mattel is expected to play out in the next few months.