Thing is, GW doesn't have a US trademark on Space Marine in books. (They apparently have one in the UK, presumably for RPG books, etc.)
http://mcah.wikia.com/wiki/Spots_vs_Games_Workshop has a lovely list of stuff about it...
http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2013...trademark.html notes not just prior use of "space marine," but also...
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There is also the small matter of Games Workshop not attempting to protect the alleged trademark prior to this point, namely not when Dark Horse released a number of Alien comics and magazines in the early 1990s which sometimes used the term 'space marine' to refer to the Colonial Marines. They have also taken no action against Barnes and Noble, which has a sub-section called 'Soldiers and Space Marines'.
More notably, GW has not attempted to sue Blizzard Entertainment, despite the latter's creation of the StarCraft franchise in 1998 which is - sometimes breathtakingly - similar to Warhammer 40,000. The Terran Marines in StarCraft not only fulfil the same role as the Space Marines in WH40K but look extremely similar. Coincidentally, Activision-Blizzard is a multi-billion-dollar company with legal resources that vastly outstrip those of GW's by several orders of magnitude.
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http://www.aaronsanderslaw.com/blog/...n-notification is an analysis of why Amazon shouldn't have taken it down in the first place, and why GW was 100% overreacting.
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First, a trademark isn’t an exclusive right to use a term commercially; it’s a right not to have your product or service confused with someone else’s, as to origin, sponsorship, affiliation, etc. That was never a reasonable possibility here. Second, and more important, while there is a duty to “police” your marks so that third-party use doesn’t weaken your marks. This duty, however, is often greatly exaggerated by (1) people who need an excuse to justify their abusive behavior and (2) people who stand to profit from aggressive enforcement (gee, like who?).
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If there ever is a battle involving hand-to-hand combat in outer space, you can bet that marines will fight it. And we’ll call them “space marines.” Because they’ll be marines. In space.
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As for checking out the book? Well,
I liked it! Do note it's in a "Screenplay" format, which may take a little bit to get used to. So as always, sample before purchase. But if the format isn't something that just pushes your buttons wrong... like I said, I liked it. O:>