Chapter House won't win.

If someone were to make minis that were compatible with GW it might work, but they would need to be just that, compatible. A "6mm version of a 28mm mini", i.e. direct copy downscaled, would still be in shaky ground at best. Hypothetically, of course.



There's that too, zombo. There's that too.

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SG

Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

Most of my models would be illegal to sell regardless of the CHS lawsuit. Especially the vehicles.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

I've always wondered if blatantly copying some IP product then giving it away for free (so that you do not 'profit' from the IP) would be a way to weasel out of the IP law. I doubt it, but it would be fun to do if you won the lottery.

Nope that's illegal and you can be sued by the originator company for lost revenue and dilution of IP.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

You don't need to make money to breach copyright. Movie and music torrent seeders don't make money but they still get sued!

(IANAL but I work in an industry that is very IP-centric, and there are no IP laws I know of that forbid making compatible products. A good example is generic vehicle parts or unbranded printer cartridges.)

Whats with chapter house, is this a 6mm or 28mm company..... And why are they going to court


Regards epic

They're a 28mm company who made things like marine shoulderpads and various conversion kits for GW models, and even labelled them as such.

Ah see what you mean when you say "they wont win" using ip from there current best selling range, also taking away sales from fordgeworld and labeling it as GW they must of been crazy Good on them though for having the balls, but it inevitable they where doomed for failure by the sounds of it

Cheers for the heads up zombo, regards epic

Well they didn't label them as GW kits more like "Shoulder Pads for use with Space Marines(tm)"

Epic thread on Warseer about the lawsuit, with legal commentary from weeble1000 http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291945&page=34

Summery of the situation:


Chapterhouse Studios make conversion kits for GW models. GW is sueing them.

At first it looked like Chapterhouse Studios was doomed with a capital D, but then a big law firm decided to donate their services to Chapterhouse Studios for free because they thought the case was legally interesting.

The case is currently being heard in the US court system.

They've actually held back GW's legal attacks so far, though they've not been able to get down to specifics yet because GW's lawyers were making wild claims about their IP, like saying that they invented the word Carnifex (A Latin word that's been in existence for a couple of millenia!), or that every single CHS add-on kit infringes every single publication GW has ever produced, simultaniously.
The Judge recently gave GW an order to tightly define every specific infringement allegation they have as tightly as they can, apparently because if left to its own devices, GW's lawyers will happily claim ownership of pretty much anything.

Some of GW's legal bullets look likely to stick. Others will probably bounce. Regardless, if it goes all the way to jury trial (As GW have requested!) under the US legal system it's going to cost GW millions of dollars.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Here's what we do know:

- It's categorically not illegal to make conversion kits intended for use with others' products (There is a large after-market in conversion kits in everything from military scale models to automobile bodywork kits).

- As an addendum to the above point, it's not illegal to *say* that your kit is designed specifically for use with another company's kit. For example, anyone can legally make a product that is designed to carry iPods and call it a "Carry case for Apple iPod" (Many companies already do that).

- It's not illegal to use motifs or design elements that cannot be claimed as IP by GW (For example, the Black Templars symbol is just a Malteese Cross, a real world icon that has been around for hundreds of years and is very well known, and indeed is already associated with real world Templar knights... it's unlikely that GW claim claim much strength in IP there).

- It is illegal to directly copy expressions of ideas.

How all of that stacks up against Chapterhouse Studios' track record of pushing up against GW's IP as hard as they can, remains to be seen.

The judge wants to hear every allegation GW have against each of CHS' 100+ products, and each allegation will be decided upon by the law.

It may be decided that everything CHS has done infringes GW's IP, it may be decided that none of it does, and more likely is that CHS will defeat some allegations and lose on other counts.

After the court case, CHS will probably have to withdraw much of their range from sale, but they might be allowed to keep selling some of their range too. GW may have had its IP weakened (By clarifying that it does not own the usage of Malteese Crosses on toy soldier models, for example), and it will certainly have spent millions of dollars in squashing a tiny bug.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Why doesn't GW get sued by the makers of "The Terminator" for the models and for the "we'll be back phrase"? And by "Aliens" for some of the tyranids? And by "Starship Troopers" for the cadian look?

I think free representation (if that is what it is), and GW bring out of pocket several million dollars is a win in itself - especially if CHS attain leway to keep producing even some of their stuff for production.

So as far as I can see, GW has already lost. Not everything in measured in a lawsuit. Look at Napster and the success that was, even though it was sued.

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