When did AM's SOTC become SOTW?

Am I right in assuming Palitoy changed the name of their Soldiers of the Century sets to Soldiers of the World around 1969/70 right around the time GI Joe was moving away from it's military theme and becoming all 'adventures of' and 'Adventure team'?
The change does seem to coincide with Palitoy's rationalisation of the line when they discontinued the GB, Aussie Jungle Fighter and Russian.
Did they originally use 'Century' rather that GI Joe's 'World' for copyright reasons and revert back when Hasbro ceased using the name?
There are AM sets in both 'Century' and 'World' versions. Was there a distinct switch date and if so when?

Not sure why they changed the name, but SOTC were the 1st issue 60's outfits and SOTW first appeared in the early 70's.

Im gonna go out on a limb here

I think when Palitoy took over the line from GI Joe they used the name "Soldiers of the Century" here in the UK and released the German Stormtrooper, British Infantry, French Resistance, Australian Jungle Fighter (kahki Version,Russian and Green Beret. The same range as GI Joe had out except for the Japanese Imperial Soldier. So to show it was essentially a different range they used the name "Soldiers of the Century"? This was around Late 68-early 69

Then When GI Joe discontinued their Line of "Soldiers of the World" Palitoy changed the range to "Soldiers of the World" here in UK and reissued the German Stormtrooper,British Infantry and French Resistance outfits but added "Australian Jungle Fighter" (Green Version) French Foreign Legion plus The German Staff Officer, and dropped the khaki Jungle fighter, Russian and Green beret which were as far as i know NEVER released as "Soldiers of the World" here in UK so the name change was a launch pad for the 3 new outfits in 1970 knowing that now they were discontinued in the USA there would be no Mix up as to what outfit variations there were to be.

Hence the rename and relaunch

Thats my theory anyway

Im sure our friends across the pond can confirm that the name "Soldiers of the Century" was never used by GI JOE

Great Post Steve how refreshing to have an Action Man/GI Joe question to chew over   

A rummage through the equipment manuals and I think I've sussed it. It's still Soldiers of the Century in the '72 catalogue but becomes Soldiers of the World in the 'Now with gripping hands' '73 catalogue. They must have revamped the line in anticipation of the arrival of the new Aussie and French foreign legion unis that would be released in the following couple of years.
The question arose because as far as carded stuff goes the Stormtrooper, Resistance Fighter and British infantry uniform and equipment cards remained the same apart from the name change.
Presumably 'Century' cards are always older but can't be considered purely PH era as they over ran into fuzzy's by 3 years.

there was a change in the uniforms as well the obvious being the material  but the breast pockets on both set was changed from being rounded at the bottom to being square "yes anorak I know lol" so all the sets are different

A very good point Roy so even though they ran into the 70's the designs etc changed so i would still stand by the new name was to coincide with the launch of the 3 new soldiers as well as the revamped older uniforms