Scrabble knockoff Scrabulous has been taken off Facebook for good, and not just in the US and Canada, either. The popular social networking site has removed access to the application from users in the UK and Australia, effectively leaving it completely inaccessible except from India, from whence it originates.

Scrabulous' removal from Facebook comes a month after Hasbro, owner of Scrabble here in the US and Canada, filed a lawsuit against Scrabulous' developers for copyright and trademark infringement. Although its creators, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, weren't pleased with the lawsuit, they voluntarily removed access to the program from North America in order to appease Hasbro, but kept it accessible internationally.

Unfortunately for the Agarwallas, that wasn't quite enough. The involuntary removal of Scrabulous outside of North America was the result of a takedown notice sent by Mattel, which owns the international rights to Scrabble. In a statement sent to Inside Facebook, Jayant Agarwalla said that Mattel had approached the Indian courts in February seeking an order to take down Scrabulous, but that the court had not yet made a judgment.

"It surprises us that Mattel chose to direct Facebook to take down Scrabulous without waiting for the Hon'ble High Court's decision. Mattel's action speaks volumes about their business practices and respect for the judiciary," he said. "It is even more astonishing that Facebook, which claims to be a fair and neutral party, took this step even though they were fully aware of the circumstances under which the Mattel letter was sent to them."

The Agarwallas now await the decision of the Indian courts as to whether the application will be blocked in their home country as well. In the meantime, the brothers have still relaunched the app as Wordscraper, careful to avoid any possible reference to Scrabble in its documentation, design, or even color combinations. So far, it appears as if Hasbro and Mattel—both of which have been marketing their own Facebook version of Scrabble instead—have left Wordscraper alone, but for how long? Hasbro's copyright only covers certain implementations of the game, not the general concept of lining up letters to form words and scoring points from them. As a result, the Agarwallas may be able to stay out of reach of legal complaints this time around.