Wordle owner files lawsuit against geography-based Worldle
The New York Times accused the game of being "nearly identical in appearance, sound, and meaning"
The owner of Wordle has filed a lawsuit against Worldle, a puzzle game that focuses on guessing geographical places rather than words.
As reported by BBC News, the New York Times said the geography-based app is "nearly identical in appearance, sound, meaning, and imparts the same commercial impression" as Wordle. It also accused the game of "creating confusion" among users.
Worldle is a browser-based game run by Seattle-based developer Kory McDonald, with an estimated average of 100,000 monthly players.
"There's a whole industry of [dot]LE games," McDonald said. "Wordle is about words, Worldle is about the world, Flaggle is about flags."
Wordle was acquired by the New York Times in 2022 from its creator, Josh Wardle.
In March this year, the newspaper issued DMCA takedown notices to developers of games similar to Wordle to "defend its intellectual property rights," as reported by CBS.