The Guardian
trending topics
Close Box

Our news

Yes, it’s true: We are joining GigaOM...


Scrabulous Developers Claim Mixed Victory In Indian Court; Name In Violation, Game Not, They Say

  • Comments Comments (View)
  • Text Size: A A

Jayant and Rajant Agarwalla are telling fans they’ve had a partial victory in their effort to defend Scrabulous, their highly popular digital version of Scrabble. The LA Times reports that the two sent an e-mail to fans claiming the Indian court where they being sued by Mattel ruled that the name Scrabulous was a trademark violation. But, they say, the game itself doesn’t violate Mattel’s rights. We haven’t seen the court papers on this or heard Mattel’s response so hard to know what the ruling really means. The Agarwallas say they “will take a call on whether we will appeal against the decision on the trademark after consulting our legal advisors.”

SEE ALSO: Facebook Shuts Down Most Scrabulous Access; Blames Complaint By Mattel

Mattel, which holds the international rights, filed suit in India in February. Hasbro, the North American rights holder, sued in July, prompting Facebook to ask the Agarwallas to withhold the game from North American users. Last month, responding to a complaint by Mattel, Facebook barred the app from most users; India, where the Mattel lawsuit was pending, was the exception. Meanwhile, the Agarawallas launched Wordscraper, another Scrabble-a-like but with circles rather than squares and some other surface changes. Wordscraper lists 232,440 monthly active Facebook users.

Updated: Turns out AllFacebook.com had this before the LAT (I’m still working through a backlog after being offline while traveling most of Friday), including the full text of the e-mail.

Sep 28, 2008 4:37 PM ET

Posted In: Legal, Companies, Facebook, Countries, Asia, India, hasbro, mattel, scrabble, scrabulous

(Page 1 of 1)


The Bestsellers

From iTunes and YouTube to Facebook and Kindle, the most popular content on the web, free and paid.

YouTube Videos YouTube Videos
1. Bugatti Veryon High Speed Runs x7
2. Tallest HS Player in the World 7'5"…
3. Giants Parade FAIL. What Giants player…
4. NEW! DOG(Argentine Mastiff) BITES…
5. Thank You Message to Selena Gomez…
See The Other Bestsellers »

Jobs RSS Job Listings

Social Standing

Which media brands are getting a lift from Tweeters and bloggers right now -- and which are getting panned?

"Sentiment" Scores for All the Companies »

Sponsors

Staff