Game over for Scrabulous?

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 14 Jan 2008 at 11:28

The maker of Scrabble has ordered Facebook to remove the popular Scrabulous application, claiming that it infringes on its trademark.

The Facebook application, which mimics the popular Hasbro board game, was originally developed as an online game by two software developers from India, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla.

After the game became popular the pair released it as a Facebook application, which quickly went on to gain a user base of 485,536 active daily users.

"They sent a notice to Facebook about two weeks ago. The lawyers are working on it," Jayant Agarwalla told Fortune, going on to admit that the pair are making over $25,000 per month from advertising on the application.

Currently the application is still available, though both Facebook and the makers of Scrabulous have been unavailable for comment.

Scrabulous is the second Facebook application to come under scrutiny this month, after Facebook removed the Secret Crush application, following claims that it was being used to distribute spyware.