In the Grim present, there is only Legal Wrangling...

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 3:41 pm

Spotted this on BBC website today. GW and an author having major wrangles over whether anyone else can use the phrase 'space marine' in a published work. Have a read folks - anyone thinking of writing a book or creating a game, there are a lot of intellectual property lawyers out there hoping to make life awkward (allegedly).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21380003
There is more here:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201302 ... pant.shtml
I can understand any person or company wanting to protect something they created from scratch, but in all seriousness, the term space marine or using marines as the collective noun for the troops serving aboard vessels in umpteen fictional universes has been around for about 80 years - maybe more. E.E. Doc Smith certainly used it.
It feels to me like GW would rather pay lawyers than proof readers, given the number of errors highlighted on many forums including BoW. Very disappointing.

BlackMist · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:31 pm

That's as absurd as that whole apple vs samsung patent war.

Maybe Tolkien's grandchildren should patent Orc too? Sure, GW wouldn't suffer because they have Ork, but Blizzard Entertainment uses Orc in WC and WoW.

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:53 pm

I had a friend point this out a few days ago to me. I guess GW never heard of Starship Troopers? I read that book when I was 13, and it was already about 25 years old then. WH40K wasn't published in it's first incarnation for another 4-5 years. I've seen good references that there were even one or two other authors that used the term explicitly before then.

Sadly with most IP laws you don't have to actually be right...you just need to have more money so small people can't afford to fight. This is just another symptom of the "money above all" mentality that is consuming them. Make a fair profit. Protect your HONEST property. Don't get stupid.

Pindergorn · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:27 pm

GW Facebook wrote:

Games Workshop owns and protects many valuable trademarks in a number of territories and classes across the world. For example, 'Warhammer' and 'Space Marine' are registered trademarks in a number of classes and territories. In some other territories and classes they are unregistered trademarks protected by commercial use. Whenever we are informed of, or otherwise discover, a commercially available product whose title is or uses a Games Workshop trademark without our consent, we have no choice but to take reasonable action. We would be failing in our duty to our shareholders if we did not protect our property.

To be clear, Games Workshop has never claimed to own words or phrases such as 'warhammer' or 'space marine' as regards their general use in everyday life, for example within a body of prose. By illustration, although Games Workshop clearly owns many registered trademarks for the Warhammer brand, we do not claim to own the word 'warhammer' in common use as a hand weapon.

Trademarks as opposed to use of a word in prose or everyday language are two very different things. Games Workshop is always vigilant in protecting the former, but never makes any claim to owning the latter.

GW actually responding to criticism...

GothmogtheWerewolf · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:37 pm

Hmm, dis GW actually invent that term? If they dis then they are trchnically in the right. I'm not sure they did though, never heard about this before. I think GW might just want to make even more money out of Space Marines.

BlackMist wrote:

Maybe Tolkien's grandchildren should patent Orc too?

Can't be done. Orc is a Saxon word meaning 'horde'.

valpas · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:56 pm

Here's the above reply in FB, and people's comments (public, you don't need to be in FB yourself to read them): link

Keeping a TM requires defending it, but still, as both miniature gamer and science fiction reader this case has left me disgusted at GW's current IP strategy. They speak of "a number of classes and territories" but do not mention these vague classes and territories. Apparently science fiction literature is among those classes and territories even though the whole idea of a space marine was invented in those classes and territories decades before GW even existed. They can talk what they want but unless I see action (or lack of legal action against the publisher), I won't buy that talk. (And I am very pro-TM when the TM-holder has actually invented the concept and word behind the TM instead of ripping it off from previous sources.)

Of course the original culprit is the trademark office that has been incompetent enough to grant anyone a TM on "space marine".

-- Pasi

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:00 pm

I started a thread on the subject earlier today with some interesting links:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=25190

valpas · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:16 pm

Cheers Dorth, managed to merge the topics.

-- Pasi

Curufinwë · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:35 pm

Once again a legal battle about common words and who owns them... [sarcasm] I think Oxford should sue Games Workshop for every word that they use that is published in their dictionary and thesaurus, after all they have been publishing it for about 150 years.[/sarcasm]

The fact that it is two common words used to voice a concept is the biggest issue here. The fact that I could get sued for trademark issues for just placing a phrase such as Space marine in my text, a simplified phrase that describes a marine who operates in space is ludicrous.

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2013 11:48 am

GW appear to have stirred a hornets nest with this stunt - I see a lot of feedback on Beasts of War and they even mentioned it on the Weekender video (in between slagging poor Justin).
http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/news- ... fi-author/
And then there is this golden oldie from a long time ago, in an IP paradigm, far, far away...
http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-a ... 2784_n.jpg

simmuskhan · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2013 7:44 pm

I just hope that GW never notice that we all have skulls inside our heads and demand a recall. I figure they must own skulls given how many have been produced in their range =)

Pindergorn · **Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2013 9:50 pm

valpas wrote:

Cheers Dorth, managed to merge the topics.

-- Pasi

phew...I was having a bit of a EDITED TO REMOVE WORD moment when I clicked this topic...Thanks for merging them, I hadn't noticed the other one.

Can you stop using inappropriate language even using **** to hide part of the work in your post. You are starting to sail very close to the wind with this. You know the rules on the One Ring - please respect them.

Azog

In the Grim present, there is only Legal Wrangling...

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