Facebook users may soon find their favourite word game, Scrabble, missing from the website.

Games company Hasbro has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in New York demanding that Facebook block the game, which Hasbro claims is its creation. Hasbro reckons it has the exclusive North American rights for the word game, which has become popular among Facebook users. It alleges violation of copyrights and trademarks.

The move from Hasbro comes less than two weeks after the release of the authorised version of Scrabble for Facebook. The controversial word game has reportedly recorded some half a million users per day.

Mark Blecher, general manager for digital media and gaming at Hasbro, said the Hasbro waited until Thursday to file a lawsuit to ensure that Scrabble fans had a legal option first, IndiaTimes reports.

The lawsuit named the Agarwalla brothers of Kolkata - Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla - as defendants.  Both these brothers, along with a Kolkata company, have created the programme.

The Agarwallas couldn’t be reached for a comment.

Facebook was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, although the company has expressed its disappointment, saying Facebook positions itself as merely a platform provider and that Hasbro shouldn’t have dragged it into the dispute. X