In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only litigation

[dijit]

I have to say the Frothers thread is rather funny and almost makes me want to enter it.

I wonder how long/what it it will take for GW to back down? I hope any judge worth his weight would laugh at it.

[Wirelizard]

As someone in that linked Frothers thread actually says, that is very nearly the perfect Frothers thread. It's horrifying, awesome, stupid and hilarious at the same time.

I'm extremely glad LAF isn't like Frothers, but I am also very glad that Frothers exists. I'll be lurking on the sculpting comp threads for sure!

[janner]

39 pages - mostly trolling 

Poor Inso 

[tnjrp]

Howard Tayler comments on the proceedings:
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/space-marine-water-war-uplift

[Suber]

Interesting level-headed text.
I guess that, if the 30's authors would have registered the 'Space Marine' term (no idea on IP laws then), Games Workshop would have needed to invent a new term. But as no one did, GW was the early bird here.
So the matter is about if you can set a trademark on such a generic term as 'Space Marine', 'Space Ranger' 'Space Seal' 'Space Sailor' 'Space Soldier' 'Space whatever'. They should no doubt have invented a word, as Dune's 'Sardaukar'. That sounds so cool!

[former user]

Yep, very original
Herbert used a lot of Indo-Persian-Arabik etymology
So basically same as Tolkien.
Almost no intelectual property is truely genuine, which makes the copyright-trademark issue so complicated

creative commons versus marketability, plagiarism versus copyright trolling.....
let's solve the problem by discussing it in a forum......

[Suber]

Well, guess you are right here.
BTW, do you remember the Nike affair?
The trademark 'Niké' was registered in Spain by 1932. Hence Nike had to drop out the 'name' from the logo and only the 'tick' remained. They finally won, based on the lack of use of the name by the previous owner, but the trial extended for over a decade and the amounts invested on it were never known, but suspected huge.
There was an interesting debate then about the use of Greek mithology as trademarks, extension of IP on common terms, cultural references and so.

[former user]

Well, I actually wanted to point out that the matter of
"the creator should profit from the fruits of his creativity"
is not that easily solved.
And that the establishment of internet  (see the other thread) has pushed the envelope towards the necessity of rethinking the concept of marketability and the issue of market controlled economy - it should be clear that this topic in all it's consequences is not separable from other socio-economic issues.

[Ajsalium]

Interesting level-headed text.
I guess that, if the 30's authors would have registered the 'Space Marine' term (no idea on IP laws then), Games Workshop would have needed to invent a new term. But as no one did, GW was the early bird here.
So the matter is about if you can set a trademark on such a generic term as 'Space Marine', 'Space Ranger' 'Space Seal' 'Space Sailor' 'Space Soldier' 'Space whatever'. They should no doubt have invented a word, as Dune's 'Sardaukar'. That sounds so cool!

They actually have invented a term: adeptus astartes.

But my guess is that it's too complicated for the ten-years-olds that are their target customers now, so they want to monpolize the use of space marine.

Frothers won't let them, though.

[Mahwell skel]

I am thinking of trademarking the term "Rouge Trader" 

[dijit]

I am thinking of trademarking the term "Rouge Trader" 

[General M@yhem]

I've send GW an e-mail on this, for all the good it does.
I know I'm only one voice, but hopefully others will chime in.
This is just despicable behavior.

Be interesting if you could post their response...assuming you get one!

[palaeomerus]

They should be allowed to trademark Spess-Muh-REEN and CHOAS.

As in: "I think CHOAS is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything."

[The Voivod]

Be interesting if you could post their response...assuming you get one!

yeah, no response whatsoever.