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At first sight it is a battle between the quixotic (26 points) and the quartzy (28 points). On one side are two young entrepreneurs who have provided pleasure and time-wasting potential to millions through Scrabulous, an online word game that can be played on Facebook: on the other, are two corporate giants - Hasbro and Mattel which own the intellectual property rights to Scrabble - demanding the application be taken down.
The reality is more complex. The two brothers, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, who launched Scrabulous in July 2006 are making more than $25,000 a month from their move. The owners of Scrabble are getting tough not with a couple of hobbyists but with people who are running a business.
The breakthrough for Scrabulous came when it appeared on the social networking site. Now it claims more than 600,000 daily users, making it one of Facebook's most popular applications.
Enthusiasts have already set up "Save Scrabulous" groups. Some of them argue that Scrabble benefits from the interest that the online game has attracted with new sales of the board game, and warn that they will boycott Hasbro and Mattel products if Scrabulous disappears.
These arguments miss the central point. Against whatever extra sales the online game may generate, must be set the damage it has already done to any licensed version that comes along. The presence of the unofficial game means that an authorised game will lack novelty. The ability to charge for it, once players have become used to joining in for free, is also reduced, and the brand itself has been diluted. Serious glitches experienced on Scrabulous could make players less willing to try an official online Scrabble game.
There is also the fact that Electronic Arts has a licensing agreement for electronic versions of Hasbro games until 2013. Any settlement between the Scrabulous entrepreneurs and Hasbro and Mattel, must surely take account of the cost to EA as well.
The quarrel over Scrabulous is a classic example of the challenges in maintaining intellectual property rights in a world where so much content is freely available on the internet. It requires nimble footwork to defend the product without sounding like a killjoy. The music industry is still wrestling with this.
Even where unofficial usage represents a sincere tribute, owners of powerful brands must protect their intellectual property rights. When it comes to such valuable commodities, the highest-scoring seven-letter word is still control.