Pawtucket-based toymaker Hasbro Inc. said yesterday that it’s launching a version of Scrabble for social-networking Web sites.

The game is the first one Hasbro (HAS:NYSE) has licensed for such usage and comes about a year after two brothers in Calcutta, India, launched their own version of the game as an application on the popular Facebook site. The introduction of Scrabulous, created by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, prompted legal threats from Hasbro and Mattel Inc., which each own rights to the iconic Scrabble board game.

Hasbro owns the rights to distribute Scrabble in the United States and Canada, while Mattel owns the rights to distribute it elsewhere.

Mattel launched its own online version of the game in March.

Hasbro developed its newest version of Scrabble in conjunction with California-based Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS:NASDAQ) and will launch it later this month on Facebook and Pogo.com.

Scrabble is the first Hasbro title in a set of free online games expected to be introduced this year on Pogo. EA Scrabble games are available on mobile phones and Apple Inc.’s iPod in the United States and Canada.

In the Hasbro-Electronic Arts version of the game on Facebook, players can choose a real-time turn-based game. They can pause a game and resume it later. Players can choose the speed and level of play for games, and track scores, statistics and rankings, as well as chat online with other players.

“We understand the current popularity and potential of Web-based social-network game play for a wide range of our toy and game brands,” said Mark Blecher, general manager of Hasbro Digital Media and Gaming. “We know people have wanted to play an authorized version of Scrabble online.

“If you’re a Scrabble fan . . . you’ll find it really familiar.”

Scrabulous, the virtual knockoff created in 2005 by the Agarwalla brothers, has proven enormously popular, with more than 700,000 players a day and nearly 3 million registered users.

The Scrabulous version has a board that looks just like Scrabble’s and has the same number of letter tiles with the same point values. Players can search for opponents through Facebook. Scrabulous also tracks player statistics.

Hasbro and Mattel threatened to force Facebook to take down the Scrabulous application because they view it as a copyright violation.

“Scrabulous very much infringes our intellectual property [rights],” Blecher said.

Hasbro has not filed a lawsuit in the matter.

Scrabble’s 15-by-15 grid and basic rules are familiar to board game fans around the world.

In the traditional game, players each randomly select 7 lettered tiles from a pool of 100, a each indicating a point score of 1 to 10, depending on the letter. Players then take turns arranging their tiles into words on the grid, and they add up the point values. Values increase when tiles are placed on various bonus squares.

Last August, Hasbro signed a license with Electronic Arts to make video, cell phone and other digital games for the Scrabble, Yahtzee and Tonka brands.

pgrimald@projo.com