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U.S. toymaker sues Indian brothers
By
siliconindia news bureau
New York: U.S. toymaker Hasbro has filed a suit in federal court against RJ Softwares, a Kolkata-based company owned by Rajat Agarwalla and his brother Jayant Agarwalla, for creating an online word game on Facebook networking website by copying its product Scrabble.
The suit, which accuses the brothers of 'blatant infringement' of its intellectual property, seeks unspecified damages along with a court order barring RJ Softwares from using the name 'Scrabulous' for their game.
Hasbro also sent a copyright notice to Facebook, demanding that it remove Scrabulous from its site. Scrabulous is one of the most popular activities on Facebook after its launch in 2006 and is believed to have over 2.5 million registered users.
"We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand," Hasbro's General Counsel Barry Nagler said.
Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, and Mattel, which owns the rights elsewhere. The company had earlier sent cease-and-desist letters to the Agarwalla brothers but the siblings issued a statement vowing to keep the application live.
Facebook said it was disappointed with Hasbro's move. "We're disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute. However, we have forwarded their concerns to Scrabulous and requested their appropriate response."
The suit, which accuses the brothers of 'blatant infringement' of its intellectual property, seeks unspecified damages along with a court order barring RJ Softwares from using the name 'Scrabulous' for their game.
Hasbro also sent a copyright notice to Facebook, demanding that it remove Scrabulous from its site. Scrabulous is one of the most popular activities on Facebook after its launch in 2006 and is believed to have over 2.5 million registered users.
"We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand," Hasbro's General Counsel Barry Nagler said.
Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in North America, and Mattel, which owns the rights elsewhere. The company had earlier sent cease-and-desist letters to the Agarwalla brothers but the siblings issued a statement vowing to keep the application live.
Facebook said it was disappointed with Hasbro's move. "We're disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute. However, we have forwarded their concerns to Scrabulous and requested their appropriate response."
Reader's comments(11)
1: Though I am not sure who-did-wot but cases
like these utterly proves that we Indians are
making our foot prints stronger with every
passing day in the domain of IT and computer
gaming.And a case like this show how scared
they are about the strength of indian
intellect.
Posted by: Vivek - 12:00 AM Jul 28, ' 08
2: This is like stretching the copyright and IPR
too much, tomorrow these guys will say they
have a copyright on the words "scrabby"
"scramble" etc as most of the letters from
the word scrabble are included in this :).
The whole concept of IPR should be considered in context of the appropriate medium.
They had a far better way to handle this by buying the poroduct from the agrawal brothers, but maybe the "desis' were too tough with them in negotiations :)
haha
Three cheers to the Agrawal brothers.
The whole concept of IPR should be considered in context of the appropriate medium.
They had a far better way to handle this by buying the poroduct from the agrawal brothers, but maybe the "desis' were too tough with them in negotiations :)
haha
Three cheers to the Agrawal brothers.
Posted by: Upendra Watwe - 12:00 AM Jul 28, ' 08
3: How intellectual is this intellectual
property? really!!!
From the 1938 game called called Lexiko and Criss-Crosswords to 1952 when Jack Strauss, president of Macy's departmental store promoted the game, to Coleco, Scrabble has changed hands a lot.
AFAIK, nobody owns the electronic rights, and for Hasbro -- a non intellectual company -- to assert intellectual property rights on something they did not create and cannot imagine, shows how low they will stoop for money.
From the 1938 game called called Lexiko and Criss-Crosswords to 1952 when Jack Strauss, president of Macy's departmental store promoted the game, to Coleco, Scrabble has changed hands a lot.
AFAIK, nobody owns the electronic rights, and for Hasbro -- a non intellectual company -- to assert intellectual property rights on something they did not create and cannot imagine, shows how low they will stoop for money.
Posted by: Ram Rao - 12:00 AM Jul 28, ' 08
4: I used to play the board game as a kid and
after joining Facebook, I was delightd to see
such a wonderful application available
online. I am deeply attached to the game now
and I play on a daily basis. I dont care
about the IPR issues, I just hope the
application is not discontinued.
Raj Kiran
Raj Kiran
Posted by: Raj Kiran - 12:00 AM Jul 28, ' 08
5: If the US Hasbro were in the place of indian
brothers, would the indians been able to sue
these Americans ? IT because india has always
made america sit on its head.
Posted by: MasterMind - 12:00 AM Jul 28, ' 08
6: Whatever RJ Software had done is pretty
shameful. It is the corruption of the country
that is getting reflected in the IT industry
too
Posted by: Piyal Gupta - 12:00 AM Jul 27, ' 08
7: Some folks in the board have already
concluded that the indian firm has infringed.
One should also keep in mind that US is a
country of law-suits. Now that the economy
is in doldrums, they are desperate to make
money from anywhere.
Posted by: Satish - 12:00 AM Jul 25, ' 08
8: Without even knowing case details &
infringement laws, looks like people decided,
confirmed (if possible may give judgment too)
that Indian firm is a cheating firm. It is so
easy to sway people's opinion. Because our
society is full of such innocent people. That
is the reason old wise adage translated
verbatim into english "lies spread
instantaneously, while truth will be revealed
only over time"
I have no connection to Indian firm except I am an Indian. I couldn't resist responding to those two comments posted who confirmed that Indian firm is a cheater.
I have no connection to Indian firm except I am an Indian. I couldn't resist responding to those two comments posted who confirmed that Indian firm is a cheater.
Posted by: Krishna - 12:00 AM Jul 25, ' 08
9: If Hasbro were smart about it, they would
have made scrabulous first. Hasbro happened
to be slow on the draw, and now they're
complaining because they're butthurt.
Best option for them would be to actually hire the brothers to program/continue development of the application not only on facebook, but other social networking sites as well.
Just my two cents.
Best option for them would be to actually hire the brothers to program/continue development of the application not only on facebook, but other social networking sites as well.
Just my two cents.
Posted by: Erick - 12:00 AM Jul 25, ' 08
10: i find the situtaion very funny.. an
infringed appliaction getting more famous
than the originally developed application..
even though the indian guys have cheated i
still find what they did commendable.. the US
guys should take lessons from them in
marketing their product...
Posted by: namrata - 12:00 AM Jul 25, ' 08
11: This again proves that Indians are smart in
copying things
Posted by: Vanu - 12:00 AM Jul 25, ' 08
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