gamesworkshoplogo.jpgBack in December, we reported on a case in which Games Workshop had pressured Amazon to remove a science fiction novel from the Kindle store because it used the term “space marine.” After some additional internet attention to the story in the last week, today Games Workshop today issued a statement in which it said:

Games Workshop owns and protects many valuable trademarks in a number of territories and classes across the world… Whenever we are informed of, or otherwise discover, a commercially available product whose title is or uses a Games Workshop trademark without our consent, we have no choice but to take reasonable action… Games Workshop has never claimed to own words or phrases such as ‘warhammer’ or  ‘space marine’ as regards their general use in everyday life, for example within a body of prose.

Now, keep in mind that Games Workshop’s United States trademarks for “Space Marine” cover only “video computer games; computer software for playing games” and “board games, parlor games, war games, hobby games, toy models and miniatures of buildings, scenery, figures, automobiles, vehicles, planes, trains and card games and paint, sold therewith.”

So the statement doesn’t really address the issue, does it?

UPDATE:  The Electronic Frontier Foundation has convinced Amazon to reinstate M.C.A. Hogarth’s book.