Wordle is a popular online game whose owner is suing to stop a derivative called Worldle that is based on geography.
The News, which paid a seven-figure price for Wordle in 2022, is accused in the complaint of “creating confusion” and trying to take advantage of “the enormous goodwill” associated with its own brand by its near-namesake.
However, Worldle’s developer, Kory McDonald, a software developer, is threatening to retaliate, arguing that there are numerous other games with comparable names.
He told the news, “There’s a whole industry of [dot]LE games.”
He made the observation, “Wordle is about words, Worldle is about the world, and Flaggle is about flags.”
The News isn’t convinced.
Worldle “administers the same commercial impression to and is essentially identical in appearance, sound, and meaning to it.
The newspaper informed the news that other than what was in its legal submission, it had nothing else to say.
Word correlation
In 2021, British inventor Josh Wardle created Wordle as a side project to amuse his fiancée.
However, it has now grown to become a massive global phenomenon, reaching millions of people.
By comparison, Mr. McDonald, who is located in Seattle, claims that about 100,000 people play Worldle each month.
It can only be played through a web browser; there is no app for it.
Although there is an option to play the game without advertisements for £10 a year, Mr. McDonald claims that Google receives the majority of his earnings from the game since he uses Google Street View photos, which users have access to.
