Reply To: GW Takes Ghamak To Court!

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This will mean that in court GW will likely have to identify specific models that they believe are similar to their designs (which in turn will likely result in hundreds of individual claims) and Ghamak will likewise have to prove that selling in a different medium (digital vs physical) and branding them as being for a totally different game mitigates any potential confusion

I’m not even sure that that’s the issue here – Ghamak has admitted that he has in the past, “ripped off” GW designs, and has removed the offending items from his catalogue. His (legitimate in my opinion) claim is that GW are claiming other items of his are also too close/confusing but have refused to disclose which they are contending – so they are effectively using the “unfair competition” claim to force him to close down his entire catalogue of miniatures.

I don’t think his defence is entirely “digital vs physical” – that makes up part of it (as in you can’t buy an online STL from Ghamak and honestly believe you’re getting a genuine GW product) but the issue he raised is that not every one of his minis is in breach of copyright – so he shouldn’t be forced to remove all of his catalogue.

If GW had gone through and said “this one, this one, this one” Ghamak’s claim is that he is happy to comply (where they have a valid claim). But according to the history of events (as reported by Ghamak) is that they refused to do this, and simply demanded his entire operation be shut down under the claim of “unfair competition”.

My interest in this case is not even about the future of Ghamak’s own catalogue. I believe his 40k-rip-off minis were the weakest in his catalogue and there are many other “better” sculptors out there now (making minis in a style that I prefer). Ghamak was just an early mover in the 40k STL scene.
What is concerning is that is GW are successful in this unfair competition claim, and get Ghamak to close down their entire operation, it gives GW the power to (threaten to) unilaterally shut down any competitor that gets “too close”.

The outcome will indeed be interesting!