More Games Workshop Legal Shenanigans

Greyhawk GrognardUncategorized, , 5 Comments on More Games Workshop Legal Shenanigans

Remember last year when the news broke that Games Workshop was attempting to assert a trademark over the term “Space Marines”, and had some ebook on Amazon taken down because it used the phrase in the title?

Well, there’s a bit of follow-up on the case, both from the author of said ebook, M.C.A. Hogarth (In the Future, All Space Marines Will Be Warhammer 40K Space Marines), as well as John Scalzi’s blog, and Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing, which certainly raise the story’s profile. The trouble is, the author doesn’t have the funds to fight the legal battle, so unless something changes GW will win by default. That doesn’t mean that they’ll actually have the trademark on “Space Marines”, but it does mean their case will be a little bit stronger, because their claim is starting to be recognized and not challenged. 
I’d certainly support a “Save Spots the Space Marine” campaign, just on principle.

UPDATES (ongoing):

Now Popehat has put out a call for folks to write GW concerning the issue. I doubt that will generate many emails sympathetic to GW’s position…
…and a mention on io9.com…
…and I’m sure Games Workshop would love to hear from you on this subject on Twitter. #BoycottGW
…and now it’s been SlashDotted…
…and Wil Wheaton has sent his flying monkeys as well…
…and now The Most Interesting Man in the World has chimed in…


…and The Escapist…
…and ICv2…
…and The Guardian…
…and Kotaku…
…and Corante…
…and Game Dynamo…
…and The Mary Sue…
…and a whoooole lot of other places, too.

If you want to buy the book in paperback, because Amazon is being a spineless weasel and has taken down the Kindle edition, you can do so –> HERE <–

UPDATE: Space Marine Victory!

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Wargamer and RPG'er since the 1970's, author of Adventures Dark and Deep, Castle of the Mad Archmage, and other things, and proprietor of the Greyhawk Grognard blog.

5 thoughts on “More Games Workshop Legal Shenanigans”

  3. Wonder if GW knows about Heinlein and the other folks that actually created the idea in the first place. That burns me up. How can they even try for such a thing, it's such a generic term, 'space marine'.

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