Got in a bit of a strop yesterday after hearing that the makers of Scrabble have warned the owners of Scrabulous — its Facebook counterpart — to remove the application immediately.
The tight bastards.
I don’t often stoop to the level of writing an email to companies like this, but I just had to poke myself in with this issue. So I sent this:
Come on guys, do you have any idea how negative this makes you all look?
Reverse the bad PR this instant by coming out and saying you love Scrabulous, and are keen to come to some sort of agreement. The future is online — you should be looking into ways to hire these two guys; not court-order them into submission.
Simple and to the point, I thought. This morning, I got a response! Awesome…
Dear Consumer
Thank you for your email regarding the recent Scrabulous announcement.
“Letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States regarding the Scrabulous application. Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks. As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the United States and Canada, we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries.”
Once again thank you for your thoughts and comments.
Regards.
Karen Allen
Consumer Response Advisor
Hmmm… seems like they’ve been getting a lot of emails, then. Let’s hope they see some sense soon.
On another note, since when have I been a Scrabble ‘consumer’? Never — and they shouldn’t assume so. I certainly won’t ever be a consumer with their company if they continue to pounce on these two blokes for simply having a good idea.
