Scrabulous is one of the more popular add-on applications inside Facebook with over 500,000 users per day. (Count me as one of them.) On January 11th, Hasbro/Mattel — makers of the original Scrabble board game — sent Facebook a cease-and-desist order, citing copyright infringement.
Facebook apps (Scrabulous included) are created by third-party developers on top of the social networking site’s open API. Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the Calcutta-based developers who created Scrabulous, are apparently also included in the cease-and-desist letter.
While the copyright infringement issue is certainly understandable, I’m inclined to think that Hasbro/Mattel is more upset that they aren’t profiting from the 500,000+ people who interact with their product every day. Here’s another example of how companies must adapt and adjust their revenue streams to work in tandem with social mediums, and quickly.
If I’m Hasbro/Mattel, I immediately hire the Agarwalla brothers, full-time or via consulting contract, and put them in charge of getting the entire brand portfolio (Battleship, Monopoly, Jenga, Stratego, Clue, etc.) built upon the Facebook API and Google’s OpenSocial movement. I’d use this as an opportunity to create communities around my products, turn my users into distributors, gather data via opt-in methods to learn more about my customers, sell ad space and ultimately promote brand loyalty.
Posted by Nathan on
January 25th, 2008 @ 1:05 pm | Filed under Facebook, Social Media, Social Networks
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If for no other reason that by playing nice with the Scrabulous team would deliver them an exisiting, dedicated following of loyal Scrabble fans. You can’t buy that kind of marketing. Otherwise, they are likley to alienate the very public they should be courting.
I can’t think of a more efficient way for Hasbro to alienate 1/2 million of their fans. I also hope that they are not under the impression that these people will go out and purchase a copy of the actual board game when the online version is gone.
Now, I understand that if you don’t actively defend your trademarks you run the risk of losing them in the long run but there definitely better alternatives than a cease-and-desist!