Scrabble-Scrabulous

On one side are two young entrepreneurs who have provided pleasure to millions through Scrabulous, an online game played on Facebook.

On the other, are two corporate giants - Hasbro and Mattel which own the intellectual property rights to Scrabble. The reality is more complex.

The two brothers, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, who launched Scrabulous in July 2006 are making more than $25,000 a month. The owners of Scrabble are getting tough not with a couple of hobbyists but with people who are running a business.

With 600,000 daily users, it is one of Facebook's most popular applications.

Enthusiasts have set up "Save Scrabulous" groups. Some of them argue that Scrabble benefits from the interest that the online game has attracted with new sales, and warn that they will boycott Hasbro and Mattel products.

There is also the fact that Electronic-Arts has a licensing agreement for electronic versions of Hasbro games until 2013. The quarrel over Scrabulous is a classic example of the challenges in maintaining intellectual property rights in a world where so much content is freely available on the internet.

Via FT