Spots vs Games Workshop

Summary of Events[]

In mid-December of 2012, I received a notice from Amazon that they had suspended the sales of my e-book, Spots the Space Marine, in response to a complaint from Games Workshop that I was infringing on their trademark on the term "space marine." Looking up the relevant trademark information in the US, UK and European databases, I discovered that in no country did GW have a trademark on any class related to fiction. I discussed this with Amazon, which told me to talk with Games Workshop. Over a period extended by the frequent absences due to the holidays, I had that discussion and could not reach an agreement with GW.

I had written two blog posts about this issue in mid-December and again in January. However, my post in February (In the Future All Space Marines Will Be Warhammer 40K Space Marines) caused enough media movement that the EFF was able to convince Amazon to re-instate the e-book. You can once again buy it on Amazon, and many people have; I was gratified to see so many reviews from people who bought the book because of the controversy, only to discover they enjoyed it.