Are you a Scrabble fan? Scrabble, the popular word game created by Hasbro and Mattel has been the topic of debate recently as an online alternative was created to operate as a Facebook application called Scrabulous. Scrabulous was created by Rajat Aga…

I would suggest that only the makes of Scrabble (TM) know how their sales might have been affected by Scrabulous. I’d be interested to know what the effect, if any, was.

Too often companies try to abuse the IP protection system via bogus claims. For example, LEGO has periodically tried to claim that the shape of their bricks was part of their trademark — as opposed to their patents (which have expired).

This type of claim is, in my view, NOT a legitimate defence of IP but rather an attempt to claim as private, that which under existing laws properly exists in the public domain. In other words some IP lawsuits are in fact an attempt by a corporation or person to unethically steal from the public at large.

The argument over whether it increases or decreases board sales is completely irrelevant. It’s up to Hasbro whether they want to make their game freely playable online or not, not random third parties. You don’t get to walk into the back of Starbucks, grab two armfuls of coffee cups and start handing them out free to passers by, then tell the store manager that “it’s ok, it’ll boost your sales”, even if it’s true. Their property, their decision.

Of course it doesn’t. It gives you the right to use the things you bought. Nothing more and nothing less.

Haven’t they made enough money off of me already? Does this not give me the right to play it when & where I want?

I mean really… another example of greed & big business… as if they don’t have enough money already… give me a break….

I’m now boycotting all Hasbro products and am going to sell my Franklin Mint edition…

My wife and I play Scrabulous all the time - and actually went out and purchased our first Scrabble board as a DIRECT result of the online game. Then we got a Super Scrabble board. And a Scrabble dictionary.

Hasbro wouldn’t have seen a cent from us had it not been for Scrabulous.

Not as many people but very nicely done.

http://afterdarkmytweet.wordpress.com/

It’s much more interesting than Scrabble anyway, and I have not heard from their Hasbro lawyers in four years. The game is just too different to be considered an infringement.

You can’t own the IP rights to the idea of a word game, but you can own the IP rights to elements of your game. Scrabulous flagrantly violates these copyrights–and I do think that their Trademark may be in violation too. It’s not circle R yet, so I’m sure Hasbro is going to try and get it tossed.

Typical bonehaded move by n00b developers.