Games Workshop, the company that owns Warhammer, is attempting to shut down Jon Del Arroz’s Space Marine comic claiming he is infringing on the company’s trademark.
In a post to X, Del Arroz, the co-owner and founder of Fandom Pulse, shared an email sent to crowdfunding website FundMyComic demanding Del Arroz’s The Emerald Array comic be removed from its website.
Del Arroz wrote, “Games Workshop is demanding FundMyComic take down my Space Marine book, The Emerald Array. Space Marine is a genre on Amazon for books, and they didn't even create it it was coined author Bob Olsen in a 1932 short story.”
He added, “This is anti-competitive harassment.”
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As seen in the attached image to the post on X, the email states, “Please find below a notice of trademark infringement for material available through your service. Please le me know if you require any further information. Thank you.”
It then states, “I am duly authorised representative of the exclusive rights holder Games Workshop Limited which owns trade marks in the follow; Games Workshop Limited’s genuine models, merchandise and publication which can be found at the following sites.” It lists off warhammer.com, merch.warhammer.com, and blacklibrary.com.
Next, it claims the U.S. trade Space Marine and sites US reg. 2100767 and claims that The Emerald Array comic violates this trademark, “These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site.”
From there, the email demands, “I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible.”
As Del Arroz notes, multiple authors outside of Games Workshop and its Warhammer 40,000 IP write space marine stories. In fact, there’s an entire Space Marine section on Amazon that includes books by JN Chaney, M.R. Forbes, Virgil Knightley, Toby Neighbors, and others.
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Furthermore, there are a number of books that have Space Marine in the title. Raconteur Press Anthologies published Space Marines III in February 2024.
Sean-Michael Argo also published Space Marine Ajax in August 2023.
Regarding the specific trademark cited by Games Workshop, the United States Patent and Trademark Office notes the trademark is for “video computer games, computer software for playing games.”
Del Arroz’s The Emerald Array is a comic book or graphic novel and not a video game.
Fund My Comic’s Founder and operator Luke Stone informed Del Arroz via email that he has no plans to remove the comic or graphic novel from the site.
He told Del Arroz, “At this time, the campaign will remain active on our platform. Our preliminary evaluation indicates that while the campaign may contain derivative works, it does not appear to infringe on any trademarks owned by the requesting party.”
He did add, “Please be advised that the FundMyComic legal team is currently conducting a thorough review of their claims to assess the validity of the request and determine an appropriate response.”
What do you make of Games Workshop’s attempt to deplatform Del Arroz’s The Emerald Array comic through a trademark that is for video game games and computer software for playing games?
Support Fandom Pulse with a great graphic novel that classic Warhammer fans will love. Back THE EMERALD ARRAY book on Fund My Comic!
When you can't sell your own merchandise because nobody wants to read socialist nonsense, you have to shut down other people.
You can't trademark the words Space and Marine any more than you can trademark the words Space and Navy or Star and Fleet.
Marketing bonanza, inbound.