You get 10 points without any bonuses for placing the word L-A-W-S-U-I-T on either a Scrabble or a Scrabulous board, but Hasbro doesn’t want the latter to keep its place in the lexicon of American pop culture.
Hasbro owns the North American rights to Scrabble, and they have sued two Indian brothers and their company, RJ Softwares over their 500,000 daily user Scrabulous online video game on the popular Facebook social networking portal.
Scrabulous has been one of the most popular “Facebook Apps” since the website allowed users to add games and third party modules to their profiles.
In its lawsuit, Hasbro asserts that Scrabulous violates its copyright and trademark rights. Hasbro has also asked Facebook to block the game on the website, CNN reported.
Electronic Arts released an official version of Scrabble for North American Facebook users last week, as part of their licensing deal with Hasbro to bring popular board games into online, PC and console-based platforms. The official Scrabble port has not deterred fans from the older Scrabulous. Both games are available for free.
Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble outside the US and Canada, did not join the lawsuit.
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