Scrabulous cuts off users as Hasbro spells lawsuit

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Word-wise game players lost a popular online diversion on Tuesday as the creators of a knock-off of the game Scrabble cut off service in North America in the face of a lawsuit by game maker Hasbro Inc.

Scrabulous, an online version of the classic board game created by two brothers in India, cut off the service for U.S. and Canadian Internet users on Tuesday after Hasbro filed suit in a New York federal court last Thursday.

"Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice," Scrabulous notified players of the crossword game inside the popular Facebook social network site.

Scrabulous, introduced on Facebook a year ago, has become a phenomenon, sucking productivity in offices and schools around the globe. The game has become one of Facebook's dozen most actively used programs, attracting 500,000 daily players. It pits online opponents who compete to come up with clever words using the most exotic letters to score points.

The Hasbro lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Southern District of New York, names the creators of the game, brothers Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, and RJ Softwares, as defendants.

Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, while rival Mattel Inc owns the rights to the popular board game in the rest of the world. Mattel filed a suit against Scrabulous several months ago and is awaiting a decision on its complaint by an Indian court.

Hasbro, the world's No.2 toy company, had sent a notice last week to Facebook requesting that it remove the application in the United States and Canada as soon as possible.

"We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand," Hasbro's General Counsel Barry Nagler said at the time.