I’m conscious that “Scrabble” is a registered trademark and that I can’t simply offer a game called “Scrabble” – but, given the elderly users I’m hoping to help, it would be hugely beneficial to be able to at least refer to it – and, preferably, to apply the rules of the game in the way those users remember them.
Turns out “it’s complicated”!
‘Scrabble’ is a registered trademark – but with different owners in different parts of the world! Looking at a website where the word is very frequently used – the Association of British Scrabble Players – we see that they don’t get hung up on suffixing the registered trademark symbol to every occurrence but do acknowledge the trademarks in their webpages’ footer thus:
“SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A. by Hasbro Inc., in Canada by Hasbro Canada Inc. and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Ltd. of Maidenhead SL6 4UB, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro or Hasbro Canada”
So I’ve added that to the footer of this site too – and that should cover off basic mentions of the word. But what about the rules of the game, the board layout and so forth?
The history of the name and whether or not it should become usable in general parlance – in the same way we use “hoover” without fear of lawyers breathing down our necks – is discussed in a 2008 article here. Certainly, here in the UK, almost everyone over a certain age (and probably 98% of my target demographic) has played “real” Scrabble – and probably knows the basic rules.
Having that familiarity in long-term memory already is a huge benefit over trying to work with the lesser known variants – both in terms of getting people, who are potentially suffering from early stage dementia, to understand what we’re offering and avoiding the need for extensive tutorials on the rules. If the player isn’t already familiar with the rules, it’s pretty certain that a family member, a friend or another resident – in the case of care homes – can explain the rules to them.
There are numerous very similar games – such as “Words with Friends”, “Word Master”, “Words with AI”… – that completely avoid the trademark and, presumably, differ just enough in content to avoid being sued. Those that have deliberately tried to exploit the name – such as “Scrabulous” which appeared on Facebook till 2008 – have been rightly stomped on and shut down.
But look at how the opensource “Quackle” project approaches the problem. They’re careful to refer to it as a “crossword game” but it’s clear from the multiple mentions of “Scrabble” that it can be configured to play using the standard Scrabble board layout and rules. It’s been around since 2006 without being shut down. Maybe because they’re not profiting from it, they get cut more slack?
At some point, as I move from a private project – within my own family – to something offered more widely, I’ll have to tackle the problem of naming my offering – and whether or not we can even refer to the great game itself; can we use the exact rules or not?