Scrabble V. Scrabulous

Hasbro and Mattel have asked Facebook to pull the Scrabulous application, claiming copyright infringement.

If you’re a Facebook user, the chances are you’ll have come across the Scrabulous application. With more than half a million people using it every day it it’s one of the most popular add-ons for thesocial networking site.   But, the BBC reports, it might have to vanish soon. Hasbro and Mattel, who share globalownership of the Scrabble trademark, claim that Scrabulous infringes their copyright and have asked Facebook to pull the game.   Created by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the game is amongFacebook’s ten most popular apps, and the new move has – surprise, surprise – already spawned a Save Scrabulous Facebook group with more than 600 members.   The game has provedso popular that several Scrabble cheat sites have been launched, showing the word combinations possible with the available letters.     There has been speculation that Hasbro and Mattelhave raised the issue because they’re preparing to launch their own online version of Scrabble.