Unfortunately, they actually do say this – or words to that effect – as one independent author found out to her dismay when Amazon, in response to a takedown notice from GW, blocked sales of one of her books because it has the words “space marine” in the title. While there’s no question that they’d lose, and badly, in a court case, the author doesn’t have the money to fight a court case against a large company which appears to have moved from making money through games to rent-seeking and lawyering.
With a little digging, I found that GW’s basis for this claim is a limited trademark registered in England (we won’t go into the sanity or otherwise of whoever granted a trademark for what is damn near as generic a term in science fiction as “spaceship” or “hyperspace”) for games. That trademark protection does not apply in the USA, nor does it apply to ebooks. Or any other form of books.
Frankly, this is one of those cases where the question “what were they thinking?” has one word too many. It’s not so much a weak case as one where all the lawyers involved had to have been on some really potent hallucinogenic drugs. Space Marine is, not to put too fine a point on it, generic. Hell, it’s a trope that’s damn near migrated to cliche status. The first Internet-known appearance of the term was in the 1930s, before GW was a twinkle in the founder’s eye. Quite likely before the founder of GW was a twinkle in its parents eyes, presuming said founder is in fact human (and if so, still actually running the company. Right now the evidence is strong that the place is run by demons in lawyer form).
This is the next wave of anti-Indie activity, where the big players lawyer up and try to sue or intimidate the independents out of business. It has to be stopped.
Since my resources are limited, I can’t donate to the author, but I can make some suggestions. Tweet with #SpaceMarines and wax sarcastic about GW in said tweets. Spread the word as far and as wide as you can, making sure to state the facts as best you know them and direct people to the author. Don’t buy anything GW sells. Email GW and tell them you’re disgusted, post to their corporate Twitter (@VoxCaster) and mock them for trademarking generics. Use #GamesWorkshop hashtag to talk about trademarking “the”, “and”, “very”, and “a”.
Idiots like this are allergic to mockery. Mock them.
Now, that said, I need to make room for some extra deaths in the next Con Vampire book. A large game company that’s given up producing new stuff and just sues the pants off anyone who uses generic terms in their books is going to lose some of its lawyers and staff, in a nice gruesome fashion.
Mad Genius Club 
34 responses to “Games Workshop says “All your Space Marine are belong to us! MWAHAHAHAHA””
I don’t think it went so well back when TSR tried the same thing and wanted to trademark “Nazi”.
True – there’s certainly no shortage of attempts to do this sort of thing. Usually they end up crashing down, but they can and do hurt a lot of the smaller players in the meantime.
Seems to me some of the mockery should be attached to Amazon for taking down a book based on the idiocy.
A concerted effort to make AMAZON realize what it’s caving in to should parallel any other efforts.
Besides, Spots the Space Marine is rather entertaining.
At least the author could gain some sales from the publicity.
I just checked – Spots the Space Marine IS for sale at Amazon – so GOOD for them – cancel all Amazon mockery (unless they take it down again). Automatic takedown when challenged, followed quickly by putting it back up, IS the proper response to a problem with a book. I didn’t check the reviews, but there WERE 11 reviews for the book (which unfortunately wasn’t available in ebook form), so Amazon didn’t delete those.
I still think it’s a good idea to give the author positive publicity. At least that might compensate a bit for being bullied.
Aargh!
Spots is available – but not the KINDLE version.
Let us hope Amazon puts the KINDLE version of Spots the Space Marine, MCA Hogarth, back up very quickly – their internal review process ought to be able to handle this.
It’s the kindle version they’ve taken down because of the bogus claim.
Just bought the ebook version at Smashwords. So there – Amazon lost the sale. I always meant to get a copy – found it addicting when I read it online, and fun – so now I have one.
So, is GW going to sue, hmm, half the Baen writer’s list, and several movie studios? That would be worth popping popcorn for.
Oh, yes, Kate, it would make a great addition to the next Con book! That said, I just finished the first one and I will never be able to look at “closing ceremony” chicken again without snickering.
Hehe…. That was the idea. And thank you 🙂
TXRed – I just finished it, too. Since Sarah had just recently written about her younger son having had that dream, I nearly spewed my lunch on my monitor at work.
You say the nicest things!
Can we sic Microsoft onto ’em? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_marine
Now that would be fun!
I wrote GW a letter and basically explained to them that their actions in regard to this book can result in SF fans and conventions being told and that legal issues could also be considered. Quite frankly, I would love to see a kickstarter.com page started for legal fees for Hogarth’s challenge. I think a lot of authors would contribute.
Yes, I suspect so. Popehat (http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/06/the-popehat-signal-help-an-author-against-a-bogus-trademark-claim/) has put up a call for any lawyer willing to take the case pro bono, so it’s possible Hogarth is waiting to see if that pans out first.
There’s another set of targets who also need mocking. The people in the Trademark who allowed this obscenity of a trademark to be assigned. This has been the problem with Intellectual Property law for the past several decades – they let people patent and trademark ludicrous things, which are then used to bludgeon other people and companies to not produce anything even similar. Or to law-beat other companies into bankruptcy.
Oh, absolutely. Those, unfortunately are a rather harder nut to crack, being bureaucrats and mostly immune to ridicule. Their political masters can be harried into a proclamation, but that usually doesn’t translate to any change at the work end.
GW already has a terrible reputation with the very people who buy its games. And then they want to try this stunt?
I hang out on a miniatures forum (Reaper) and the regulars by and large are resigned or furious with their usual business practices. And Reaper’s regulars are the sort of laid back, well-behaved sort. I’m new to minis, but quick browsing of other forums shows much less restrained words. But they are scathing about this issue.
I saw it everywhere I went on Reddit last night. /r/writing, /r/boardgames, and /r/rpg were all over it. I’m sure it was in other major subs, too.
There are almost no “defenders” on the space marines debacle that I’ve seen, though a few lawyers or at least armchair lawyers saying they might just have enough lead in their shoes on this that without a big enough pushback, they’ll bully their way through it.
But, hey, there’s also a contest offering $500 for the best Space Marine parody game…
GW I think is calculating that its deep legal pockets will be enough for them. Of course, I think they also failed to realize that the author community is not a good one to piss off. Writers mock. The things my twitter account has streamed in the last two days are astounding (the best one – alas, I don’t know who was responsible – “I used to be a #SpaceMarine until I took a trademark lawsuit to the knee”
Hm. Why does that make me think of the Celtic bards of old and their ability to curse via satire? *EG*
Oh gosh. I have NO idea!
[…] Games Workshop says “All your Space Marine are belong to us! MWAHAHAHAHA” […]
Thanks for writing this, Kate. You have pointed out the idiocy and wrongheadedness of this big corporation trademarking, of all things, the term “space marine.”
I hope the indy author will get good word of mouth and many new sales out of this, and that eventually she will be vindicated. Truth is on her side, not on the Warhammer side of the ledger . . . I do not understand whatsoever what they were thinking to try to trademark the term “space marine,” much less the UK folks allowing such, but I’m glad that you have written this blog to bring attention to this problem.
Barb,
What they were thinking was that if they trademarked the generic rather than using their game franchise name, they could catch themselves a whole lot more bonus loot.
Actually it reminds me of something that happened between Ralph Lauren and the US Polo Association some years back. RL actually sued the USPA over the use of the term “polo,” if you can believe it. RL had trademarked it for their Polo Ralph Lauren series of clothing and fragrances, and then sued the USPA, several polo magazines, and several polo clubs, over the use. They lost, but they put most of the magazines and clubs under just from legal fees, and imposed a tremendous hardship on the association. To this day I refuse to use or wear anything that came from Lauren’s line. I have a couple of shirts that were either given to me by friends or that I got before that incident and I will rarely wear them, but I will not buy RL.
Rent seeking and bullying. Usually means the organization engaging in it has run out of ideas.
Agreed. And it certainly *is* a bullying tactic, just as you said.
Jason Cordova just blogged that it appears GW has backed down in Ms. Hogarth’s case. (As in, within the last fifteen minutes or so.) Her e-book is back up at Amazon, at any rate, and he says he’s planning to get a copy and review it at SBR (which I thought was an excellent idea).
In this case, I think the indy author has won. But we have to remain vigilant, as we know this behavior will continue until GW gets their butts handed to them in a court of law.
Thanks for the update – it’s good that they’ve backed down in this case, and yes, we do have to keep on them because they’ll keep trying to pull this sort of nonsense until they get their anatomy handed to them on a very expensive plate which they have to pay for.
GW *has* registered the Space Marine trademark in the UK for class 16, which includes books, and class 9, which apparently covers all downloadable content, including e-books. See the registration info at http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ohim?ohimnum=E392886
The European trademark “Nice Class Headings” for class 9 and 16 at http://oami.europa.eu/ec2/term/showClassHeadings don’t seem to say “books” anywhere, but if you use the classification search engine at http://oami.europa.eu/ec2, all sorts of “books” are shown in class 16, and “downloadable” maps you to class 9, including downloadable publications.
They did *not* register in the book category in the US, but do have registered trademarks covering their games and miniatures here. Their assertion is definitely very weak in the US, in the EU, it may be different. Though some commentators has said the UK treatment of trademark is more restrictive, and requires things like color and font of words to be considered.
Amazon has restored the ebook to the Kindle store in both the US and UK, apparently without any comment.
Walter,
Trademarking “Space Marine” in any jurisdiction is abuse of the legal system. Period.
Thank you for the details and references – you have proved beyond doubt that trademark authorities in the UK and EU are at least as stupid as they are in the USA.
I would have no objection to registering “Warhammer Space Marine” or “40k Space Marine”. This is distinctive and unique to their properties. “Space Marine” is, as I said above, a genre trope dating back to the 1930s.
Irrespective of the (tenuous) legality of GW’s claims, they are engaging in corporate bullying and rent-seeking by registering generic terms. They deserve all the mockery they receive.
^this.
I agree, Kate. I think the Warhammer Space Marine term has something to do with Astarte — Adeptus Astartes? — and trademarking _that_, as they’ve done, makes perfect sense.
Trademarking “space marine” by itself is ridiculously stupid, OTOH, has bought GW much bad press and a great deal of mockery. And my guess is that it’s just beginning . . . most of the lions in the SF&F industry got on board with this, which means they know which way their bread is buttered to my mind (the future is in e-books, and the future means eventually they won’t need agents for as much or maybe anything at all, so they’d best side with the authors — those of them who are Machiavellian and actually followed the logic chain, that is; most of ’em probably just said, “Hey, we’re authors, too, and we aren’t going to stand for this!” and more power to ’em.)
At any rate, Kate, I made sure to post your blog at my FB page (along with Cordova’s blog and a few other links) to pass the word along. I didn’t write my own blog, mostly ’cause I’ve been sicker than I don’t know what for the past few days, and partly because both you and Cordova had it covered by all the angles *I’d* thought of, and maybe a wee bit more, besides.
Thanks, Barb.
The other side of this is that SF&F is still small enough that most authors know at least one other author with a lot of connections – and while getting authors to organize is a bit like herding cats, when all those cats decide that something matters to them, whoever’s in the way needs to get out, fast.
[…] long enough to enjoy the story. Or, if you’re running the PR for the company that did this, as Kate wrote about last week you can slither the following big lie out. “Whenever we are informed of, or otherwise discover, a […]