Triple Word Score
By Marc S. Cooperman -- Gifts and Dec, 9/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
BOARD GAMES ARE STILL big business. Electronic versions of board games have become an even bigger business. For all you doubters out there, Hasbro recently reminded the industry that intellectual property can be an effective weapon to protect that business when it successfully went after Scrabulous, an Internet-based word game that was a clear knockoff of Hasbro’s Scrabble game.
Launched on the Internet in July 2006, Scrabulous became one of Facebook’s most popular applications, reportedly with over half a million users daily. No doubt, part of the allure of the game was its familiarity. In addition to overtly suggesting a connection to Scrabble through use of a similar name, Scrabulous also mimicked the look and feel of Scrabble. The game board had a 15 square x 15 square playing field, the same as Scrabble’s. The game board consisted of virtually the same pattern, colors and values of bonus squares as Scrabble. The game even included the same point values and distribution of letter tiles as Scrabble.
Legally, this was an easy one. In July, reportedly after unsuccessful efforts to acquire the rights to Scrabulous, Hasbro sued for copyright and trademark infringement. Among other things, Hasbro pointed to the near identity of the games’ boards and tile designs. Hasbro had registered Scrabble’s elements with the Copyright Office long ago.
The same day Hasbro filed suit, Electronic Arts launched the officially approved version of Scrabble on Facebook. Within days, Scrabulous was taken down from Facebook, reportedly at the request of the developers of the program. As of the writing of this column, though, the Scrabulous website was still up, so at this point Hasbro’s legal victory remains incomplete.
Many companies wrongly believe that their games cannot be protected from copying. But graphics and text (like Scrabble’s) are classic creative elements of games that can be protected by copyright, or a design patent. Even though the idea for a game, and the method of play of a game, cannot be protected by copyright, they may be protected by a utility patent.
And of course, don’t forget about trademarks. There was no reason for the Scrabulous designers to choose a name that evoked the Scrabble name so clearly, except to falsely suggest a connection to Scrabble. According to the complaint, Scrabulous’ programmers went so far as to include “Scrabble” in the metatags of their game’s website so Internet users would find the Scrabulous site when using search engines to find Hasbro’s game.
In the end, the only surprising thing about this story is that Hasbro didn’t file its complaint about Scrabulous two years sooner.
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