Wordle In Legal Row With Geography Spinoff, Wordle (bbc.com) 35
The New York Times, owner of the once-viral, word game Wordle, is suing a geography-based spinoff called Worldle, accusing its similar name of "creating confusion" and attempting to capitalize on "the enormous goodwill" associated with its own brand. Worldle's creator, Kory McDonald, vows to fight back. The BBC reports: "There's a whole industry of [dot]LE games," he told the BBC. "Wordle is about words, Worldle is about the world, Flaggle is about flags," he pointed out. The New York Times disagrees. Worldle is "nearly identical in appearance, sound, meaning, and imparts the same commercial impression to... Wordle," it says in its legal document. The paper told the BBC it had no further comment to make beyond the contents of its legal submission.
British inventor Josh Wardle developed Wordle in 2021 as a side project to keep his girlfriend entertained. But since then it has become a behemoth, reaching millions of people worldwide. By contrast, around 100,000 people play Worldle every month, according to Mr McDonald, who is based in Seattle. It is not available as an app and can only be played via a web browser. It contains ads, with an option to play ad-free for 10 pounds per year but Mr McDonald says that most of the money he makes from the game goes to Google because he uses Google Street View images, which players have to try to identify. Other popular [dot]LE games include:
- Quordle, a set of four words to guess at the same time
- Nerdle, a maths-based challenge
- Heardle, which is based on identifying music
"There's even another game called Worldle, which involves identifying countries by their outlines," notes the BBC. "The New York Times declined to say whether it intended to pursue them as well."
British inventor Josh Wardle developed Wordle in 2021 as a side project to keep his girlfriend entertained. But since then it has become a behemoth, reaching millions of people worldwide. By contrast, around 100,000 people play Worldle every month, according to Mr McDonald, who is based in Seattle. It is not available as an app and can only be played via a web browser. It contains ads, with an option to play ad-free for 10 pounds per year but Mr McDonald says that most of the money he makes from the game goes to Google because he uses Google Street View images, which players have to try to identify. Other popular [dot]LE games include:
- Quordle, a set of four words to guess at the same time
- Nerdle, a maths-based challenge
- Heardle, which is based on identifying music
"There's even another game called Worldle, which involves identifying countries by their outlines," notes the BBC. "The New York Times declined to say whether it intended to pursue them as well."
World is the Word (Score:3)
Take the L, Wordle!
Re: (Score:3)
no, bird is the word.
Re:World is the Word (Score:4, Funny)
Take the L, Wordle!
Shh! No hints. The editors have 5 more chances. :-)
Wordle is a copied name itself (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
I also dont get this "new" concept thing for a very old game. It look almost the same as Motus/Lingo game that was running on TV years ago. According to wikipedia from 1987. And this probably coming from a older game...
Ok fine, it's infringment (Score:2)
Slashdot editors can confirm (Score:5, Informative)
called Worldle, accusing its similar name of "creating confusion"
*Stares at where Slashdot editors left out the l in their headline.*
Re: (Score:2)
Came here to point this out, but you beat me by 20 minutes.
Re: (Score:3)
I miss the days we could add or vote for the category of TypoInTitle. As it sits now, "Worlde suing itself"... what? re-read.. . . WHAT? oh.
Re: (Score:2)
called Worldle, accusing its similar name of "creating confusion"
*Stares at where Slashdot editors left out the l in their headline.*
Yes, made the story rather anticlimactic.
I went into the story thinking "well, c'mon, a computer game with an identical name??"
That said ... still c'mon. If I released a tabletop game using tiles called "Scraddle", I'd be two letters different ... and still in hot water.
Re: (Score:1)
Really hope the world-le guy wins (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
They should go with Mapdle or Geographdle
Re: (Score:2)
No one really wins. (Score:3)
No way he wins. This is a slam dunk trademark case for the NYT.
I think I’m going to create a new American video game where you’re a virtual chef tossing raw excuses marinated in bullshit into a large bowl to let it ferment over several days into a rank dish called rhyming infringement.
I’ll call the game Curdle for accuracy and dare a moron to sue me for use of a common word that just so happens to sound similar to another half dozen companies operating today, because rhymes.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Tell me you know nothing about trademarks....
Tell me USPTO is a fair and ethical organization free from litigation strangling the fuck out of their purposely vague definitions for the sake of litigation profit. Not to mention the legality of mega-corps holding tens of thousands of unused (read: weaponized) patents in their respective “war” chests doing wonders for human progress, right?
Tell me USPTO doesn’t severely cripple and limit future innovation.
Re: No one really wins. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It is pretty close. (Score:1)
Hrm... (Score:1)
A fix is in the works (Score:3)
attempting to capitalize on "the enormous goodwill" associated with its own brand.
One way to avoid people doing that would be to completely undermine any goodwill associated with the Wordle brand. By aggressively suing anyone and everyone who's created a vaguely similar game, for instance.
Uh oh (Score:2)
I guess they're not gonna be very happy about my swirl-matching game, Whorldle.
Also - good job with creating additional confusion by screwing up the title, Slashdot.
Re: (Score:2)
In related news (Score:2)
The New York Times has announced legal action against Josh Wardle [slashdot.org] for "deliberately having a last name that's not sufficiently distinct from the name Wordle".
When reached for comment, Mr. Wardle laughed, took a sip from his Mai Tai, then resumed napping on an Aruba beach.
The title to this post contains a typo. Worldle! (Score:1)
Please say No! (Score:3)
Re: [dot] ? (Score:2)
maybe it's the name of the company?
sad to see the NYT sink so low (Score:2)
classism: what happens when the insatiable upper classes take over all our institutions
Worldle came before NYT (Score:2)
So apparently Worldle's choice of name is an attempt to capitalise on one of NYT's brands, despite its name being chosen before NYT even owned that brand. I wonder whether Josh Wardle would have been OK with it.
Worlde suing Hurdle (Score:2)
The real problem (Score:2)
The real problem is that no one has any imagination any longer, or at least, they're not demonstrating it.