Facebook has finally decided to shut down the popular game Scrabulous. “Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here,” reads a message posted on Facebook.

Facebook’s move follows after the American toy company Hasbro Inc has sued Thursday, July 24, the creators of a Scrabble knock-off called Scrabulous. The online game apparently infringed on the Scrabble North-American rights which Hasbro now owns after acquiring the assets of bankrupt Coleco. Also, Hasbro asked Facebook to block the Scrabulous online game, which has attracted some half-million daily users.

Although Scrabulous is around since 2006, Hasbro is apparently angry that, even after releasing an official Scrabble together with game maker Electronic Arts Inc., Facebook users still preferred the knock-off, even though both were free.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York against Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the brothers in Calcutta, India, who designed Scrabulous, as well as their company, RJ Softwares, says that both the name and the game itself are very similar to Scrabble. It appears that the two Indian programmers themselves acknowledged that their Scrabulous is not really different from Scrabble, a statement which Hasbro lawyers said amounts to an acknowledgement that they copied the decades-old board game. Hasbro is seeking damages, legal costs, and the elimination of the online game from Facebook.

Scrabble was designed by architect Alfred Mosher Butts in the 1930s. The game was met with skepticism by manufacturers, and it only became known because Jack Strauss, president of Macy's, played the game on vacation in 1952.

Currently, Scrabble North-American rights belong to Hasbro, while in the rest of the world Mattel owns the copyright to the popular game. Mattel acquired the rights when it bought J. W. Spear & Sons in 1994, winning a bidding war with Hasbro. It is estimated that around 100 million Scrabble sets have been sold worldwide.

Last week, Facebook responded to Hasbro’s request saying that: “We’re disappointed Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute; nevertheless, we have forwarded their concerns to Scrabulous and requested their appropriate response.” However, the legal experts have said that is just a matter of time until Facebook will have to remove the game.

An attempt earlier this year to remove Scrabulous from the social networking site motivated thousands of people to create an online movement called “Save Scrabulous,” asking Scrabble owners to allow the application to continue on Facebook.

Hasbro revealed earlier this month the launch of a new Scrabble application for Facebook, created in collaboration with EA, intended to take users’ minds of a non-legit application, and try the real deal.

Hasbro spokeswoman Shelly Eckenroth said in a written statement Tuesday: "In deference to the fans, we waited in pursuing legal action until Electronic Arts had a legitimate alternative available. We invite Scrabble fans in the U.S. and Canada to log onto Facebook and try out the authentic Scrabble application, now in open beta.

In a statement , quoted by Times Online, Jayant Agarwalla, a Calcutta-based software developer who created Scrabulous with his brother, Rajat, said: "This is an unfortunate event and not something we are very pleased about. We sincerely hope to bring to our fans brighter news in the days to come."