Wordle stuck in legal dispute with geographic fallout, Worldle

The owner of the hit online game Wordle is legally challenging a geography-based spinoff called Worldle.

In the filing, the New York Times, which purchased Wordle for a seven-figure sum in 2022, accuses its quasi-namesake of “creating confusion” and attempting to capitalize “on the enormous goodwill” associated with its own brand.

But Worldle’s creator, software developer Kody McDonald, is vowing to fight back on the grounds that there are many other games with similar titles.

“There is 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 emphasized.

The New York Times disagrees.

Worldle is “nearly identical in appearance, sound, meaning and gives the same commercial impression to… Wordle,” its legal document states.

The newspaper told the BBC it had no further comment beyond the content of its legal arguments.

Wordle began in 2021 as a side project to entertain the girlfriend of its British inventor, Josh Wardle.

But since then it has become a monster, affecting millions of people around the world.

By contrast, about 100,000 people play Worldle each month, according to Seattle-based Mr. McDonald.

It is not available as an app and can only be played through a web browser.

It contains adverts, with an ad-free play option for £10 a year, but Mr McDonald says most of the money he makes from the game goes to Google because it uses Google Street View images, that players must try to identify.

He chooses a different one himself each evening for a new match the next day.

“It’s pretty humbling to think that so many people play every month,” he said.

“I didn’t expect such success at all.”

He’s not the only one to benefit from Wordle’s success. Others include:

There is even another game called Worldle, which involves identifying countries by their outlines.

The New York Times declined to say whether it also intended to sue them.

Speaking to the BBC last year, its head of games, Jonathan Knight, said imitation was “the best form of flattery”.

“We’ve always been on board with (similar games) and think they just help keep the game fresh and alive for people,” he said then.

However, this is not the first time that the New York Times has used the courts to protect its winning game.

In March 2024, a Shetland dialect version of Wordle announced its closure following a copyright challenge from the publishing group.

Professor David Levine, a copyright expert at Elon University Law School, suggested that Mr. McDonald’s project might also be on track.

He said the one-letter difference between the two names was potentially problematic, and added there were also “other aspects that could cause confusion among consumers.”

“You have the pronunciation,” he told the BBC.

“I mean, I have to make an effort here to say Wordle versus Worldle.”

Mr McDonald said he was “disappointed” that legal action had been taken against him, but insisted he was not intimidated.

“I’m just a one-man business here, so I was a little surprised,” he said.

“Worst case scenario we will change the name, but I think everything will be fine.”

Additional reporting: Franchesca Hashemi