Hasbro finally sues Scrabulous

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 25 Jul 2008 at 09:48

Hasbro has filed a lawsuit against popular Facebook application Scrabulous, claiming copyright infringement and demanding the game be pulled.

The counterfeit Scrabble was developed by two Indian brothers, and has become a smash hit since being ported to Facebook with an estimated 500,000 daily users.

However, its popularity has brought the ire of Scrabble-maker Hasbro, which began rattling its chains back in January and demanding Facebook ban the application from the site. The request was met with a barrage of user protest and a "Save Scrabulous" group which has racked up an impressive 45,000 members since launch.

Since then Hasbro seemed to have gone quiet on the issue, releasing an official Scrabble application which has been moderately successful but still dwarfed by its counterfeit cousin.

However, that appears to have been the calm before the storm with Hasbro now carrying through its threats in a federal court in New York City.

Despite the lawsuit, Scrabulous was still available this morning. We have been attempting to contact Facebook to discover if it intends to pull the application in the UK but nobody has been available for comment.