Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) and Mattel (NYSE: MAT), which own the right to Scrabble, are none too pleased with Scrabulous, a knockoff of the game that has gained tremendous popularity as an application on Facebook.
The game-makers have sent cease and desist notices to four parties involved with the production and distribution of Scrabulous, but it isn't immediately clear who those parties are.
In a statement, Hasbro said that it hoped to reach an amicable solution, but that, "If we cannot come to one quickly, we will be forced to close down the site and its associated distribution points."
The obvious solution is to make the game a fully-licensed version of Scrabble, and give Hasbro and Mattel a cut of the ad revenue it generates. Such a move would also probably boost sales of the board game at retail stores as people realize that Scrabble is actually pretty fun.
According (subscription required) to the Wall Street Journal, "While there are authorized Scrabble games online, Scrabulous has gained popularity because it's free, easy to play with friends and easy to access on Facebook. Scrabulous listed more than 600,000 daily active users on Facebook as of Wednesday and is one of the 10 most used applications on the site. People can also play at Scrabulous.com."
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