ZDNet: Scrabble-Scrabulous standoff spells L-A-W-S-U-I-T. Earth to Hasbro, stop being W-A-N-K-E-R-S! Scrabulous reinvigorated my interest in Scrabble to the point of wanting to purchase copies of the physical board game for my nieces and home and as Christmas gifts. With this latest development, Hasbro has lost a customer, maybe more.
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There’s a good slashdot thread on this, and the internet lawyers there have a very good point: the creators of Scrabulous made a game with layout and rules identical to those of Scrabble, and then gave it a name similar enough to ‘Scrabble’ to cause confusion. They’re trying to associate their game with Hasbro’s trademark. And they’re profiting from the ad revenue. I’m not sure how Hasbro is in the wrong, here; and it seems as though all this could have been avoided if the creators had been a little more creative with their name.
The creators probably didn’t think Facebook was going to take off, much less Scrabulous. And, no, that’s not an excuse, but they did offer a really nice way for FB users to play the game online. Hasbro should insist on a buyout, retaining the game on Facebook, rather than suing these guys.
So they should pay the infringers for their infringement?
That’s simplistic, of course; Hasbro could gain a huge customer base and the resultant profits from doing so. But apparently (grain of salt, I’ve not seen this written anywhere) the creators have been holding out for the big bucks. Pay ’em something – they did all the work on coding etc., right? – but Hasbro shouldn’t be forced into a multi-million dollar payout because someone is, in effect, squatting on their name.
More and more of us live online each passing day, so I come at this news from the viewpoint that the creators have done a great service by coding, etc. to make this enjoyment available online. Again, my aim is for the service not to disappear, which is why I find the lawsuit onerous.
Buyout, employ the creators as the online wing of Scrabble, whatever. “Hire the hackers” (and for lots of $$) is not an unknown practise, as you well know.
Dammit! This was the only reason I decided to start actually using Facebook.