Scrabulous is not fabulous, according to the owners of the word game Scrabble.

But that will change if Scrabble’s owners can play the game, too.

Toy companies Hasbro and Mattel Inc. say they’re ready to sue two men in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India, who have created a knock-off of the famous game called Scrabulous, now appearing online and as an application at the Web-based social mixer Facebook.

The New York Times is reporting that the two companies are calling Scrabulous an example of piracy and say they’re sharpening legal knives to use against Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla. Hasbro markets Scrabble in North America; Mattel does that job on a global scale.

Scrabulous looks just like regular Scrabble, right down to the playing board’s appearance and the point values per letter. It’s users reportedly number upwards of 3 million, with about 700,000 playing daily.

Those are big numbers for any online game, which is why Hasbro/Mattel hasn’t insisted Scrabulous go dark just yet. Rather, the big companies want a piece of the action: The Agarwallas are said to pull down about $25,000 monthly from Scrabulous-related advertising revenues.

Scrabble’s owners apparently have deals in place with game publisher Electronic Arts and Internet media distributor RealNetworks to put forth their own e-Scrabble versions, and the popularity of Scrabulous may hurt those efforts.

Electronic adaptations of Scrabble are not uncommon, but none has worked as well online as Scrabulous, or has drawn such widespread attention.

Game Guy believes an equitable deal is likely before any lawyers start polishing their briefcases. Because anything resembling a lawsuit is bound to generate a lot of four-letter words, and maybe boycotts of Hasbro and Mattel products, by the Scrabulous faithful.