Row Blows Up Over Ownership of "Space Marine" Term
Source: BBC
UK toymaker Games Workshop has been criticised for asserting a trademark claim to the phrase 'space marines'.
The claim emerged when it was used to get an American ebook about the futuristic soldiers taken off Amazon.
Science fiction writers have called the firm "absurd" for saying it has a trademark to the use of the term in fiction.
A UK media lawyer said more and more firms were using trademark law to protect their creations.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21380003
Added due to my beliefs that trademark and/or copyright law is an important thing.
Really, I don't believe that Games Workshop has any real case, personally, as the term and concept of space marines have been around longer than any of the employees at GW have even been born. Some of their parents, too, I'd even be willing to wager.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)according to the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_marine
which notes that Amazon has restored the 'Spots the Space Marine' page: http://www.amazon.com/Spots-Space-Marine-Defense-ebook/dp/B006MGJYOE
bluedigger
(17,086 posts)They should throw this out of court.
A more widely known early example was E. E. Smith's Lensman series. While the first story, Triplanetary and most later sequels (Second Stage Lensmen, Children of the Lens and The Vortex Blaster) do not mention them, passing mentions of marines are made in Galactic Patrol[a] (Astounding Stories, September 1937February 1938) and Gray Lensman[c] (Astounding Stories, October 1939January 1940), and a more direct mention is made in First Lensman (1950): "Dronvire of Rigel Four in the lead, closely followed by Costigan, Northrop, Kinnison the Younger, and a platoon of armed and armored Space Marines!".
The phrase "space marines" appears in Robert A. Heinlein's "Misfit"[d] (1939) and is again used in "The Long Watch"[e] (1941) which is referenced in his later novel Space Cadet (1948), in all cases before Smith had used the phrase. Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) is considered the defining work for the concept, although it does not use the term "space Marine." The actors playing the Colonial Marines in Aliens (1986) were required to read Starship Troopers as part of their training prior to filming.[3] Heinlein intended for the capsule troopers of the Mobile Infantry to be an amalgam of the shipborne aspect of the US Marine Corps relocated to space and coupled with the battlefield delivery and mission profile of US Army paratroopers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_marines
Hayabusa
(2,135 posts)are pretty much cut and paste from the Bugs in Starship Troopers.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)I shall crush them like the bugs they are
starroute
(12,977 posts)Somebody ought to go to Wikipedia and clean it up.
Heinlein's "The Long Watch" was originally published in 1949 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Watch) -- a year after Space Cadet.
And Triplanetary is not really the first of E.E. Smith's Galactic Patrol stories -- it's an originally unrelated short novel that got heavily edited to add it to the series in the late 1940s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplanetary_%28novel%29)
But once you remove the mangled chronology, it shows clearly that both the concept and the term go back to the 1930s and were coming into general use in SF by the late 40s.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Particularly silly/annoying things that make international headlines tend to turn relevant Wikipedia pages into a shambles for awhile.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)That's because it's what we would do to them.
Hayabusa
(2,135 posts)those Space Marines are modified and trained to do, although I'm pretty sure any Earth space navy would do the exact same things, see the Indian Wars.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)If they want the earth they can just steer a big rock our way.
Orrex
(63,215 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)Pay up, Games Workshop, decades of writers of all kinds, and militaries around the world.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)But then, those types don't know the macho Marines are part of the Navy which they consider to be gay.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Xithras
(16,191 posts)Games Workshop claims to have trademark on it as they've used the term since 1995.
Doom was released in late 1993. In that game (the first in what became one of the most popular video game franchises in history), you played as Buddy Dacote (yes, the dude had a name), a Space Marine in the United Nations Space Marine Corps.
Plenty of other prior art is cited here, but even if you limit "prior art" to the electronic world, which appears to be what Games Workshop is doing, they still can't win. Id Software's creation predates their use of the term by more than a full year.
Response to Xithras (Reply #8)
Great Cthulhu Message auto-removed
FreeBC
(403 posts)This author may be able to defend herself now thanks to the publicity she's gotten on the internet, but most people are usually powerless to defend themselves against something like, regardless of the merits of the claim, because it just costs too much money.
Copyright and Trademark law at its finest: he with the most money wins.
apocalypsehow
(12,751 posts)be implemented that would alleviate this problem.
Godot51
(239 posts)A sailor was talking to a Marine stationed on a Navel vessel.
The sailor asked, "Why is it you Marines are on our Navy ships all the time?"
The Marine answered, "Well, I guess it's like the Army having those K-9 dogs; we're here to protect you sailors."
The sailor responded: "Damn! Army always gets first choice."
So I proclaim my idea for a new SF novel: K-9s in Space!
muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)Hayabusa
(2,135 posts)Of course, the dogs were genetically and cybernetically enhanced and drove the handler insane if they were KIA, IIRC.