Hasbro is suing the creators of the popular Scrabulous Facebook game, after a request the toy company made to the social network earlier this year to pull the game went unanswered.

In January when Hasbro first began to fuss about Scrabulous, many were perplexed — wasn't the prolific Facebook board game an homage to the original, arguably even a sort of viral marketing? But today's infringement suit announcement comes just after Electronic Arts, through its partnership with Hasbro, launched its own official Scrabble game on Facebook, a launch no doubt complicated by the existence of an unlicenced, competing game.

Hasbro says Scrabulous infringes on its intellectual property rights, and is suing creators Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, while requesting that Facebook pull the application immediately.

Full announcement follows the jump.

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You now have two more ways to get your online Scrabble fix, as EA and Hasbro have announced the release of Scrabble on Pogo.com with a Facebook app to hit the social networking site later this month. Wait, you say, I'm already enjoying Scrabble via Facebook, Kotaku! No, that's Scrabulous, an unofficial Scrabble clone that Hasbro attempted to have pulled. It's still up.

Regardless you can play the Pogo.com version, should have you have the patience for it. As much as we'd like to impress the Scrabble bot AI with our vocabulary, we're probably going to pass in favour of reading the press release for the third time. It's full of words!

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Electronic Arts today announced nine Hasbro games that will be hitting a variety of platforms over the next year.

Littlest Pet Shop and NERF "N-Strike" are both set to come to the Wii and DS this fall, with Littlest Pet Shop also making its way to the PC. Scrabble, Monopoly Here and Now and Yahtzee Adventures are all being developed for mobile phones. Electronic Arts is also developing Yahtzee, Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition, Trivial Pursuit and Operation for their online casual gaming service, Pogo.com.

"EA and Hasbro want to give families new ways to enjoy games; we want give them a new way to come together, connect, spend time and have fun around the TV or online," said Chip Lange, Vice President and General Manager of EA's Hasbro Studio. "Bringing the spirit of these games to life as video games has allowed us to create really unique and creative experiences for families and friends of all ages to enjoy together at home or online."

"We are thrilled that together we are bringing our great toys and games to life in the digital world and providing consumers with new and dynamic ways to enjoy our amazing brands," said Mark Blecher, Hasbro's Senior Vice President of Digital Media and Gaming.

EA will be showing off a number of the games at the upcoming Toy Fair in New York later this month. Hit the jump for the full release with game descriptions.

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Hasbro, the makers of the word game Scrabble, have asked Facebook to remove its popular online take on the game, Scrabulous because of copyright infringement.

"Letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States regarding the Scrabulous application," said a Mattel spokeswoman in Britain.

"Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks.

"As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the United States and Canada, we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries."

Hmm, while it may seem silly, I believe Scrabble is an entirely original game, as in it's not one of these throw-offs of games created in the middle ages or ancient china. I wonder if they makers of Scrabulous can get away with a name change only?

Facebook Asked to Remove 'Scrabulous' [NYT]

Our own Luke Plunkett recently pointed out that the word "lesbo" is in the list of Scrabble DS suggested words, and elaborated that if he'd known that the Scrabble dictionary were so naughty, he'd have "played a lot more Scrabble".

Well suffice it to say, I intend on playing a bit more Scrabble, too, based upon this update from a reader:

Hey, my wife was playing ds scrabble and it suggested the word CUNT...Just thought it was way funnier than Lesbo

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Hasbro's DS version of Scrabble contains a help function. If you're stuck for a word, the system can check your remaining letters, check open spaces on the board and, only after consulting the Chambers Official Scrabble Dictionary, give you a word. That's just what Belfast resident Zachary McAdam did the other day, when he was stuck with five letters and no idea how to use them. The game's suggestion? "Lesbo". For real. Seems the term can actually be found in the official dictionary the game uses, offensive or not, so with the dictionary copied wholesale, "Lesbo" came with it. Not particularly scandalous, then, just... interesting. I had no idea naughty words were in the official dictionary. If I had, I'd play a lot more Scrabble.
Slang word shock on Scrabble video game [Belfast Telegraph, via Next-Gen]

A couple weeks back Hasbro worked a deal to buy back their casual game licences from Atari, leaving me wondering what big plans they had in store for their classic board game titles like Scrabble, Monopoly, and Yahtzee. Well now we know. Hasbro has now entered into a licensing agreement with EA, granting them the exclusive rights to develop titles based on several of the company's intellectual properties for consoles, mobile, handheld and PC platforms. Not limited to board games, the agreement also includes popular children's properties like Nerf, Tonka, and the Littlest Pet Shop.

"Our toy and game brands have been family-favourites for decades, and aligning ourselves with EA will result in broadening the reach of our brands through the 're-imagining' of these beloved entertainment icons in all key digital categories," said Brian Goldner, Hasbro's Chief Operating Officer.

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