Hasbro Inc

The companies that make Scrabble are trying to shut down Scrabulous, an online version of the game that is one of the most popular applications on the social-networking website Facebook. Hasbro Inc., which owns the rights to the crossword game in the U.S. and Canada, and Mattel Inc., which owns the rights elsewhere, believe that the Facebook game infringes their copyrights and trademarks. Scrabulous listed more than 600,000 daily active users on Facebook as of Wednesday.

Hasbro Inc. to Scrabulous: N-I-X-E-D, for a minimum of 13 points. The toy company scored big Tuesday in its legal match against the popular but unauthorized version of Scrabble that's played online by millions of Facebook members. The India-based creators of Scrabulous shut down the game to players in the U.S. and Canada, where Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble, a week after Hasbro sued them, alleging copyright infringement.

Hasbro Inc. has dropped its lawsuit against the makers of Scrabulous, a popular online version of board game Scrabble. According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Hasbro dropped the lawsuit Friday. Hasbro, which owns the North American rights to Scrabble, sued Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, brothers from Calcutta, India, this summer. The brothers developed the unauthorized version, called Scrabulous, after they couldn't find an online version they liked.

Hasbro Inc. is recalling nearly 1 million Easy-Bake ovens because children may be burned or injured while playing with the toy. The recall affects all ovens sold since May, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday. The latest version of the classic toy, which debuted in 1963, heats food like a toaster oven would, instead of by using a light bulb.

Electronic Arts Inc., the maker of "Madden NFL" and "Nascar" video games, will create titles based on Hasbro Inc.'s Monopoly, Scrabble and Yahtzee board games to attract family-oriented consumers. Electronic Arts also bought exclusive rights to Hasbro brands including "Nerf" and "Tonka" for as many as 10 years, the company said. Financial terms were not disclosed. The Hasbro titles will be created by Electronic Arts' casual entertainment unit and go on sale next year.

Hasbro Inc., the toy company behind the Transformers brand, wants to turn more of its line of toys into concepts for movies and has put a veteran studio executive in charge. The move comes after this summer's blockbuster "Transformers" generated $702 million in worldwide ticket sales, making it one of the most successful toy-based movies in history.

Will Spidey Sense be a match for the Force? That's certainly the hope of toy maker Hasbro Inc., which Monday announced a licensing deal with Marvel Entertainment Inc. -- home to Spider-Man, the X-Men and Captain America -- to make toys, games and other products based on its more than 5,000 characters.

Strong sales of Star Wars merchandise drove Hasbro Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit up 15%, exceeding Wall Street's expectations. But game sales declined nearly 13%, and the nation's second-largest toy maker conceded Monday that it would face a tough challenge from a drop-off in Star Wars toy interest as last May's release of "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" becomes a more-distant memory.

Toy maker Hasbro Inc. reported a wider loss for the first quarter and said the second quarter would be challenging as the company braces for a falloff in "Star Wars" merchandise sales. The first-quarter loss of $4.9 million, or 3 cents a share, for the three months ended April 2, was blamed largely on foreign currency fluctuation and new accounting rules for stock options. In the same quarter last year, Hasbro lost $3.7 million, or 2 cents a share.

New York's Times Square is the new Boardwalk, the property with the highest rent, in Hasbro Inc.'s Monopoly "Here & Now" edition, set to arrive at store shelves on Thursday. About 3.5-million Internet votes were cast in a survey by Hasbro that asked consumers to determine which landmarks from 22 U.S. cities would replace game-board spaces named after streets in Atlantic City, N.J., said Mark Blecher, senior vice president for marketing at Hasbro Games.