GW legal threat forces War Banner into a name change

[limburger 22406xp 1]

@phaidknott : there already is an ‘Angry Hamster publising’ company ( https://www.angryhamsterpublishing.com/ )
I do agree that copyright & trademarking have resulted in some rather silly (and stupid) situations.
OTOH … there are companies out there who will try anything to leech of a popular franchise (like 40k) instead of trying to be creative.
The sad news is that the laws (as they are) tend to favour the companies with big pockets and plenty of resources.

@frankelee :
Given that they mention that “..(we) have worked with GW to reach a satisfactory conclusion” I kind of doubt GW sent in the big lawyers wielding cease&desist guns.
OTOH … even a friendly letter from GW’s legal department (‘would you kindly rename your company as it infringes on our trademark(s)’ ) will have enough weight to make anyone reconsider.

Trying to win a legal battle that results in the death of your company is something that won’t help anyone pay their bills.

[dogma2097 1589xp 3]

The War Banner logo, branding and positioning was never stepping on GW toes, deriving from or passing off as GW – and a “War banner” is a pretty recognised item of battle. Rather than the Apple Computer vs Apple Records, I’d of fought it as Apple Computer vs Apricot Computer – no case to answer as they are two separate and distinguishable entities. On the other hand, I can see where confusion may creep in from outside of interested parties, so for War Banner’s own future marketing, avoiding people confusing their offering with GW (esp as they now call their stores “Warhammer”) it’s probably for the best.

The issue I have is that there is a finite amount of items and terminology in warfare, and when trademarking one (or several) recognised trappings enable you not only to prevent someone using those, but one’s you HAVEN’T trademarked, surely that is anticompetitive. It may be similar, but, by jove, it’s not the same.

“GW, Games Workshop, Citadel, Black Library, Forge World, Warhammer, the Twin-tailed Comet logo, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, Space Marine, 40K, 40,000, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Battletome, Stormcast Eternals, White Dwarf, Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Battlefleet Gothic, Dreadfleet, Mordheim, Inquisitor, Warmaster, Epic, Gorkamorka, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world. All Rights Reserved.”

“Epic” when applied to gaming…
Why haven’t they gone after – https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/ ?

[frankelee 1475xp 0]

@limburger :

Oh I dunno, if I were them I’d do a “Help Pay the Legal Bills Kickstarter” if GW actually sued me over so weak a claim, they’d probably make seven figures (which would be more than enough in subsequent profit to cover the legal fees for that kind of case). They’d even have a chance to recoup their legal fees. It’s hard to believe they didn’t get a C&D, since to lawyers that is the friendliest proper way to handle such disputes, you rarely hear about informal reach outs, but maybe not. Then again, like I said before, only if it were actually in America here, they would be sued in a British court. But if you can’t use the word “war” in the name of your wargame miniature company, well, that’s rough.

[onlyonepinman 18111xp 3]

Although it’s a bit of an arse ache for Dark Peak, their statement was incredibly reasonable, their response pragmatic and, if I am being honest, I think the decision not to fight it was also pragmatic.  I suspect they would have stood a reasonable chance of winning however it would have been financially ruinous.  And without commenting on whether I think GW were right or wrong, I actually think “Dark Peak Games” is a much better name than War Banner.

I can’t see what GW are actually going to get out of this because I don’t see War Banner and Warhammer as being particularly similar.  That said I do not own either trademark and I am fully aware of both companies as entirely separate and distinct so it’s quite easy for me to say that

[poosh 4207xp 1]

Um.. wasn’t this an April Fools …. ?

[elessar2590 18221xp 1]

@poosh

No it wasn’t an April Fools it was a very real and very serious legal threat.

@onlyonepinman only now they’re in trouble with Peak Games so they’re going back to footsore.

I agree with Peak Games and their Copyright but GW were just being bullies.

[Anonymous]

With our enforced name change(s) and Facebook, not allowing us to change the name of our War Banner business page even after appeal we have no choice but to close that page down. We will be doing so on the 8th of April 2019. ?

After a lot of thought and deliberation, we have added “& Games” to the end of Footsore Miniatures to embrace this as a company name and become ‘Footsore Miniatures & Games’.

Which means this page will become our new company page and moving forwards it will start to include all our news including Gangs of Rome, Mortal Gods and Warring Clans as well as continue with updates on the Dark Ages/Saga type stuff plus anything else we are working on.

Once again we are really sorry about all of this but it really has been beyond our control. I hope our Footsore Miniatures community will embrace this change especially as our new focus will soon be the Dark Ages. ?

[brandir 348xp 1]

A few years ago I set up an online shop and traded at UK ware as shows, selling PP’s Warmachine and Hordes.  Initially I had also intended to set up a shop too, and was about to sign a contract to lease for a premises that had previously been called ‘The Forge’.  So I thought ‘Forge Games’ would be a suitable name for my enterprise.

Sadly (or luckily!) the deal fell through and I never signed th lease, but traded for 5 – 6 years at shows under the ‘Forge Games’ banner.

It was only after a couple of years trading that someone pointed out the similarity between Games Workshop/Forge World and Forge Games, and thought I had deliberately used GW’s branding in a devious/clever way.

Until that time I had genuinely not thought of any similarities, being oblivious.

I did wonder for a while if I would ever receive a C&D letter from GW but that never happened.  Wonder if I did set up shop again GW would have issues with the name?

[zoidpinhead 12816xp 1]

So it’s Footsore Miniatures & Games then.  I’m glad they have been able to settle on something that has some traction in the market already.  I came to their gaming side from Footsore Miniatures anyway so it is no big shakes for me that they are reverting to that name.  Hopefully that’s it now and they can get on with writing great games, sculpting amazing minis and giving us all more of the stuff we didn’t even know we needed until we saw it 🙂

[limburger 22406xp 1]

@brandir : I’d say that getting a letter from lawyers in these matters tends to depend on your success and visibility within the market.

If your place at the trade show had been next to GW or at the entrance then chances would have been higher.
Heck, if they’re really wanting to be as Evil ™ as some people claim then they probably could sue you after the fact.

Legal departments can’t be everywhere at once, although some of the automated tools do help in that aspect.

///

*ouch* … Facebook manages to make things even more difficult for this company.
You have to wonder what would have happened if they had to change and Zuckerberg&co were being as unhelpful as usual.

[irredeemable 3742xp 2]

https://www.facebook.com/WarhammerTVteam/videos/434720820614491/

 

Looks like GW are planning a name change to Warhammer (or at least following through with it as I remember stores being rebranded years ago) That’s probably what prompted them to challenge War Banner now.

If that link doesn’t work, the announcement video is on the Warhammer TV page.

[onlyonepinman 18111xp 1]

Yeah, I was thinking the same. Not really sure what all those videos are about but they do hint at a rebranding exercise.

[paulsutcliffe 83xp 3]

It’s a tough one really. I play GW games and paint their stuff, I also paint and use Footsore minis as well in historical games and in the club I run at the school where I work.

It does seem like GW have been somewhat heavy handed on this but it reminds me of something else we’ve had recently: Andy at Footsore is a great chap and has supported us at school sending a fair few Saga minis our way to get more pupils involved. Excellent for a small company where the financial hit for giving things away would be much more than for the big companies in the field. Meanwhile, GW have sent us their schools alliance kit and its essentially four of the same marine and a couple of AoS chaps along with accompanying articles that are all focused on, ‘buy more stuff, you need more things’.

[limburger 22406xp 1]

They’re not just planning it … they’re doing it.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/05/together-at-last/

It’s not every day that you get to consolidate almost four decades of miniatures, games, art, fiction and more under one symbol – so we thought it’d be the perfect excuse for a bit of a party! Soon, we’ll be bringing you an epic worldwide celebration of all things Warhammer – stay tuned on the Warhammer TV, Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 Facebook pages for more.

So the letter sent to Warbanner makes perfect sense.

[elessar2590 18221xp 1]

Cool so because with a certain accent the words subjectively sound similar Warbanner now loses a few thousand people via Facebook, spends goodness knows how much on a failed re-branding followed by a second re-branding.

Guess Facebook was too busy collecting all those nude selfies (Yes in Australia they do that) to change the name of a Facebook page.

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