Re: What have they actually bought?
And digitally (though as an app, not a webpage) the QI team made qiktionary (4 letter word game though rather than 5) quite a few years ago... though arguably its got more game play facets to it than wordle.
So, I think it would be hard to go after any clones (so long as they don't rip off source code hugely) as there's plenty of prior art that's arguably applicable
Biting the hand that feeds IT
