Scrabulous Spells S-U-E-D for Indian Developers

Developers of the Scrabulous app on Facebook have been sued by Hasbro, which own the rights to Scrabble in North America. Hasbro has also sent a legal notice to Facebook asking them to block the game.

Scrabulous.com was originally launched by brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla from India in 2005, and was recently made available as a free "add-on" for Facebook users. Scrabulous on Facebook is played by about half-million users daily, and bears a close resemblance to the word game Scrabble.

Back in January, Hasbro had threatened legal action against Scrabulous developers and Facebook. Now, the company has gone ahead and filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. However, this suit holds little weight, since Scrabulous lists no assets in the US and a court decision there would need backing by India's legal system to be enforced, reports AFP.

So far Facebook has not blocked the application. In an official statement Facebook said, "Our hope and expectation is that the parties can resolve their disagreements in a manner that satisfies the parties, that continues to offer a great experience to gamers and that doesn't discourage other developers from using our platform to share creativity and test new ideas."

Meanwhile Agarwallas have appealed to their fans to remain loyal to Scrabulous. Click here for more.