War of words

IF YOU listen carefully, you'll hear them. Up and down offices, on trains and buses, in cafés and houses and even in bars. It's a distinctive tap-tapping sound, followed by the rustle of a dictionary. Because if the statistics are to be believed, with more than 600,000 people logging on every day, you're never more than a few yards away from someone playing Scrabulous – an online game based on Scrabble that's available on the social networking site Facebook.

Yet this week it has emerged that the tiling may well be on the board for Scrabulous. Earlier this week Hasbro and Mattel, the makers of the board game Scrabble, irked at the copyright implications of Scrabulous, wheeled in their legal team and fired off a letter to Facebook, asking it to remove the programme because it infringes on their copyright for the board game. Facebook have yet to do so. They have also yet to comment on the matter. Mattel too has kept schtum, apart from a statement released by Mattel UK – Britain's distributor of the board game. "Letters have been sent to Facebook in the US regarding the Scrabulous application," it said.

"Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks. As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the US and Canada we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries."

Who knew such an innocuous board game as Scrabble – beloved of wholesome, matching-cardigan wearing families everywhere – could provoke such serious legal issues, and such strong words?

Indeed, Mattel's words are currently striking fear into the hearts of Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the two Indian brothers from Calcutta who created Scrabulous in 2005. Visually, the game looks almost identical to a Scrabble board, with similar colours and layout. In fact, it feels exactly like you're playing Scrabble, except for the fact that you're clicking on your letters, not fishing around for them in a green drawstring bag. And, of course, for the fact that your opponent isn't across the kitchen table but could very well be on a different continent.

Two Scrabble buffs, aged 26 and 21 respectively (Jayant has won several Scrabble tournaments in India), the Agarwalla brothers run a software firm in Calcutta which employs around 30 staff. Controversially, they also make money from the application – around $25,000 (13,000) a month.

"It is difficult to comment on the legal issues," Rajat told The Scotsman, "(but] we feel that Scrabulous has an excellent community that loves it. It has become popular because, apart from being a game, it has let people stay in touch with each other in a fun way."

Several months ago the brothers gave an interview to BBC Online, something Stewart Holden, of the Association of British Scrabble Players, thinks may have irritated Mattel and Hasbro.

"If you're trying to fly under the radar you don't stand there waving your arms in the air," says Holden, who has been in touch with the brothers over the Association's own licensing deal with Mattel. "Unsurprisingly, after that Hasbro said 'this is our intellectual property'. In some ways, the brothers are victims of their own success."

"Scrabulous is very passionate about using the latest technologies to power its applications and give customers support systems," Jayant told BBC Online in October. "The game has been very well received. A Facebook team member said it is a favourite at their office. We are humbled by this recognition."

Whether that recognition will be enough to save their boardgame bacon, however, is unclear. While Scrabulous has consistently been one of the ten most popular applications on Facebook since its launch last year, it has the potential to place the increasingly popular networking site amid a legal battle for which it may not have the stomach.

But if Facebook isn't convinced about suiting up for a scrap, its members certainly are. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this story has been the huge groundswell of support for Scrabulous on the site. On Wednesday, a small Facebook group entitled Save Scrabulous boasted 600 members. By 3:30pm yesterday it had swollen to 31,249. Here, passionate players of the game have vented their spleens at Hasbro and Mattel, bemoaning the loss of their favourite application and discussing everything from the legal aspects of the case to the pros and cons of boycotting Hasbro and Mattel products.

"What we're trying to put across to Hasbro and Mattel is that Scrabulous is here: that's the way the internet moves, it's gone ahead of you," says Karl Savage, a 31-year-old member of Save Scrabulous who speaks to me during his lunch break at the audiovisual store where he works, so keen is he to get his point across. "So many people are using it now and they need to accept that, rather than try and alienate the players. They'll just switch off."

But it might not be so much a case of switching off as finding an alternative. There are, in fact, several online imitators of Scrabble – some of which have been quietly operating "under the radar" for a number of years. Mattel and Hasbro are understood to have been working on their own version – although clearly not fast enough.

"Hasbro in America and Mattel have contacts with different companies to produce proper online Scrabble games which are in development at the moment, and I think that is part of it," says Holden.

If Hasbro and Mattel have been working on their own version – for which they might consider charging players – surely all these new fans aren't necessarily damaging the popularity of the original board game.

"You've got more than 500,000 people playing every day, which is more publicity than Mattel or Hasbro could buy in 1,000 years," remarks Holden.

Savage thinks that Scrabulous's fans are so loyal that if Mattel and Hasbro were to launch their own version, fans would boycott it.

"Very few people would sign up, particularly if they have been involved in this campaign," he says. "It would be more in protest to Hasbro and Mattel than if Scrabulous had never existed. Certainly not close to the 600,000 daily users of Scrabulous, even with all the marketing they could afford.

"It needs to remain on Facebook to have any real chance of success, particularly in the UK, where Facebook is now the largest social networking site."

And then, of course, there is the huge resurgence in popularity of the board game – much of it, it seems, driven by the high numbers of Scrabulous users. Although no official figures exist on Scrabble's latest sales figures, Save Scrabulous is full of members confessing to having recently bought a Scrabble board as a result of playing Scrabulous online. "Shameful as it is," one student wrote, "I've headed out to buy a Scrabble set as a direct result of Scrabulous."

Scrabble itself has a celebrity following – Kylie Minogue is said to be a fan, as is Jonathan Ross, while Charles Saatchi, husband of Nigella Lawson, plays the game for money. Some players become obsessive about it. Jonathan Maitland, presenter of the ITV show Tonight and a self confessed "word freak", spent his stag night playing Scrabble with 12 friends simultaneously.

It appears to be part of a wider resurgence in the playing of traditional board games, which started a decade ago with the launch of Cranium – a sort of "best of the best" board game that achieved record sales and massive popularity both in the US and in Britain – and is set to continue this year as the impending threat of financial recession forces people out of expensive wine bars at weekends, and back into the comfort of their own homes.

"My girlfriend bought a Scrabble set before Christmas off the back of enjoying Scrabulous and many people on the Save Scrabulous page have done the same," says Savage. "Scrabulous has reinvigorated a simple word game among a new generation and brought it up to date."

Perhaps our obsession with Scrabulous – and believe me, play one game and you'll be itching to play another and then another – merely a desire to retreat to the rainy days of our childhood, to a simpler world where the biggest problem in life is getting rid of your letter Q.

"Scrabble is a brilliant game because it's creative," says Holden. "It's strategic, but not like chess. It's accessible and there's that marvellous aspect of randomness to it too, because you never know what letters you'll get."

Bring on those triple-word scores.

'You're more likely to find an opponent online than at home'

Toby Durant, 28, is an interior designer who lives in Edinburgh. He started playing Scrabulous six months ago and currently plays every day.

"I JOINED Facebook about a year ago. A friend had posted some photographs of their wedding that they wanted to share, so I signed up. After that I found time to have a look at what else was on there and became a lot more involved than I thought I would.

"About six months ago another friend sent me a request to play Scrabulous. Initially I was just playing it with friends, but then when I was bored one day I discovered you could open games with anyone who was online. It's strange, because you're playing against people from all over the place. If I'm playing at night, I could be playing someone who's on the other side of the world, sitting at their office desk (and who should probably be working).

"The games get pretty competitive. You are ranked according to the games you win and the scores you achieve, and you can look at other players' rankings and decide whether you're going to play against them or not. It's acutely rewarding, seeing your score going up.

"Sometimes I have as many as a dozen games on the go at a time. If you've got an hour to kill and you're playing a game, you could be sitting for five minutes doing nothing while waiting for your opponent to make a move, or you could be playing several games at once. It means you're constantly working things out, looking at the next board. I like Scrabulous because it makes me think. It's good fun and it's engaging; it challenges you. I travel a lot for work and spend time waiting around in airports.

"I can get my laptop out, hook up the Wi-Fi access and off I go. An hour's wait for a plane flies by.

"I'm gutted to hear about the legal situation. I hope they manage to find a resolution. I would happily play the board game – I used to play it when I was younger – but you're far more likely to find an opponent online than at home.

"If you've got family and friends that enjoy it as well, then great – I'd rather have a few bottles of wine and play it for real than sit in an airport and do so, but I'm more often there than at home. So the best option by far is to go online."

GAME ON(LINE)

MONOPOLY

INVENTED in America's Great Depression in 1934, some half a billion people have played it since. It is licensed in 45 countries and has Scottish versions. A downscaled version is free at www.monopolylive.com, or get the Hasbro Compilation (including Boggle, Yahtzee and Battleships) for Nintendo DS for 27.99 at Amazon.co.uk

TRIVIAL PURSUIT

CREATED in 1979 as the ultimate general knowledge quiz, it has sold around 100 million copies in 26 countries. Its special editions include a Star Wars version. A taster is available at www.hasbro.co.uk/tpgenus, or buy the PC game Trivial Pursuit Unhinged from 2.79 at Amazon.co.uk

SNAKES AND LADDERS

ORIGINALLY known as Moksha Patamu, it was played widely in India as early as the 16th century, invented by Hindu teachers to educate children about the effects of good and bad deeds. It was introduced to Britain in 1892. Play free at www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/snakes.shtml

RISK

THE world's best-known war game arrived in 1959, allowing players to control armies and capture territories. Several computer versions exist, including Risk: Global Domination for PS2, priced 19.99 and Risk2 for PC from 12.87 at Amazon.co.uk

CLUEDO

ORIGINALLY published by Waddingtons in 1948, it took crime fiction off the page and on to the board. Play it online at www.cluedofan.com/onelingame.htm or get the PC game Best of Cluedo for 9.99.

CRANIUM

INVENTED in 1998 by ex-Microsoft employees Whit Alexander and Scot Richard Tait, it incorporates activities from other board games and its launch reinvigorated the genre. Get Cranium Kabookii for Nintendo Wii, priced 29.99.