That is ... incredibly stupid.

I'm no 40K fan (at all), but I realize it's huge. On the other hand, the concept of "marines, but in space" really is a genre trope as pointed out in the article. It feels wrong for a single company to own that generic term.

I've read if not shelf-meters then certainly shelf-decimeters of SF with plenty of marines in them, none being of the Warhammer variety.

I'm looking forward (not) for the chilling effects to make authors invent new wordings to avoid infringement.