Help an author against a bogus trademark claim.

[Dubird 6,815]

I don't know if any of you ever read Popehat. I check in from time to time, ever since the Carron vs. Oatmeal incident because some of the stuff they post is hilarious! But they also coordinate and help those that need pro-bono legal help in free speech cases. While I don't think anyone on here is a lawyer, as this involves Games Workshop, I thought I'd post it.

http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/06/the-popehat-signal-help-an-author-against-a-bogus-trademark-claim/

MCA Hogarth is a science fiction writer; she wrote a book called "Spots the Space Marine." Venerable gaming titan Games Workshop is claiming that it has a trademark in the term "Space Marine" that extends not just to games (like its well-known Warhammer 40,000) but to any use of "Space Marine" in science fiction.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

That reminds me of an episode of Kitchen Nightmares where this woman had a trademark on the word "Hon" for her restaurant. And every time she saw the word in newspapers, on signs or on ads she would sue everyone.

 

If she saw a sign like:

"Come on in and grab a seat hon' we have hot food inside"

 

She would walk right in and sue the person. wtf.

 

http://blog.legalzoom.com/intellectual-property/the-trademark-battle-of-the-hon/

 

 

It sucks about this "Space Marine" lawsuit. I looked at starcraft's website and I noticed the call them "Marines" on there. I wonder if there is a website to check for all existing word trademarks, because if not I don't see how any self publishing author will ever know if they are going to infringe on someone's trademark. Amazon obviously owns their name, but if someone made a story referencing the amazon forest I doubt Amazon would sue them. Maybe this company is considering the use of "Space Marine" as a kind of published fanfiction in which they could have a claim on their hands, but if the story has nothing to do with their property then I don't see any justification in the lawsuit. Its not like Space Marine is a unique word combo. If someone was using the word "Gundam" tho, then that would be pretty hard to brush off as coincidence.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

ugh...these tools are so petty