A screengrab of Scrabulous, a virtual knockoff of the Scrabble board game.

NYT / Scrabulous.com

Pawtucket-based toymaker Hasbro Inc. yesterday apparently won its fight to knock out an online knockoff of the popular Scrabble game, as the creators of the Internet application suspended their word game.

Hasbro last week sued the two brothers who devised Scrabulous — a wildly popular online version of Scrabble — saying the electronic game infringes on the Pawtucket company’s intellectual-property rights. Hasbro also notified the social-networking site Facebook of the lawsuit. The toymaker requested that Facebook block the Scrabulous game application from the network’s users in the United States and Canada as soon as possible.

In a statement yesterday, creators Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla said they agreed to block Scrabulous in the United States and Canada in deference to Facebook’s concerns, while continuing to pursue their legal defense. Rajat Agarwalla, describing the measures as “unfortunate,” declined further comment.

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

“Hasbro is pleased that the developers have voluntarily removed their infringing Scrabulous application on Facebook, and we appreciate Facebook’s assistance in expediting this matter,” the company stated in an e-mail to The Journal. “Hasbro has consistently stated that Scrabulous is a blatant infringement of Hasbro’s Scrabble intellectual property rights in the United States and Canada.”

Yesterday’s move by the Agarwallas, of Calcutta, India, came about a year after they launched their own version of Scrabble as an application on the popular Facebook site. The introduction of Scrabulous prompted legal threats from Hasbro and Mattel.

Facebook said the Agarwalla brothers, not the company, made the decision to block the game.

“The developers of Scrabulous have suspended their application in the U.S. and Canada until further notice,” Brandee Barker, a spokeswoman for Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook, said in a statement.

Since Scrabulous became available to Facebook users about a year ago, it has become one of the most popular applications on the social-networking site, drawing more than a half-million users daily 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.

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, 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.

Hasbro launched its own version of Scrabble for social-networking sites earlier this month. Mattel launched its online version of Scrabble in March.

Hasbro’s version, released by video-game maker Electronic Arts Inc. under a licensing agreement with the Pawtucket toymaker, has been attracting 15,000 daily users to its “beta” test site.

“Both EA and Hasbro are monitoring feedback from fans, and we are already in the process of making changes that will result in a variety of improvements, including faster game play, leading up to the official launch, scheduled for the first half of August,” Hasbro stated in its e-mail.

After the EA release, Hasbro sued the Agarwallas in U.S. District Court in New York.

Facebook users who tried to access Scrabulous yesterday were told the game was disabled “until further notice,” and many Facebook users updated their one-line status messages on the site to mourn the suspension.

Laura Chefer, of Atlanta, a Facebook user who logs on about 20 times a day to check on Scrabulous, said she had no sympathy for Hasbro despite its rights to the game.

“I was definitely shocked and annoyed,” she said. “These two guys went to all the trouble to make this interface, and now the big company is suing them, and we’re no longer able to play.”

The game continues to work at the developers’ Web site, Scrabulous.com, but users must sign up and start games afresh.

Facebook started letting outside developers offer applications on its site last year.

“Facebook has tried to use its status as a neutral platform provider to help the parties come to an amicable agreement,” the company said last week. “We’re disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute.”

Scrabble was developed in 1931 by unemployed architect Alfred Butts.

With Associated Press and Bloomberg News reports

pgrimald@projo.com