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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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Paramount may not have paid anything, I may be wrong, but it's always been my belief that when Paramount Television was ripped away from Paramount Pictures and given to CBS, Paramount Pictures simply retained their rights to make Star Trek movies since that wasn't something that belonged to the television side. There's long been rumors of deals and non-competition agreements of which there's never been any tangible proof, so it always looked to me like Paramount Pictures just kept what was theirs to begin with.
I believe they'd still have to license the trademarks, etc., which I understood that CBS owned outright as well as the copyrights to anything not in the first ten movies. That CBS owns the original series copyright gives them control of any derivative works (unless Paramount wanted to endless remake the first ten films similar to how the third-party Bond film Never Say Never again got made due to copyright weirdness around Thunderball). However, I won't discount some sort of arrangement made between the two prior to being corporately divorced.
 
There may be an element of truth to that, Paramount probably paid a great deal of money to CBS for the exclusive license to make Star Trek films. Such licenses often obligate the licensor to defend/enforce the licensed rights in the case of any infringing parties - and if the licensor is unwilling, the right to initiate legal proceedings (with either side cooperating with the controlling party).

Paramount is NOT a license holder. If they were, they would not be a party to sue.
 
I think there is a good likelihood that plaintiffs are choosing to amend the complaint rather than fight the motion is so that they can add other claims. Remember, this lawsuit was filed at the beginning of the year and, as other people pointed out, likely a gambit made on the assumption that Axanar would fold. They didn't.

Opposing the motion to strike would just leave C/P - if they won - arguing on their original complaint and copyright infringement claims only. Think of all the things that have come to light since the beginning of the year that made so many of us go "why didn't C/P sue on THAT claim as well?" I'm not talking about alleged financial shenanigans but rather things like trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, unfair competition, use of ST motifs on coffee, potentially infringing ship designs in models sent out as perks etc.. Now that "stuff's got real", I suspect that C/P will not only amend their complaint to add specifics on the copyright claims (such as infringement in the script, in ship designs used as perks) but also to add various other counts that will open a whole new world of things defendants have to defend against. They coudl always amend their complaint later as new facts came to light (though, at a certain point, such an amendment might require permission of the court) but now they have free reign to do so early in the litigation.

M

This is a great point and I think going this route would be the only real way to possibly shut Lord Alec up and/or convince his brainwashed followers he's done.........(though @jespah might be able to better comment on the likelihood of this)
 
This is a great point and I think going this route would be the only real way to possibly shut Lord Alec up and/or convince his brainwashed followers he's done.........(though @jespah might be able to better comment on the likelihood of this)

I think we are going to see a very long list of alleged infringements coming out of this. And, possibly, as @mkstewartesq stated, adding more fun stuff to the complaint, e. g. the coffee, the models, etc. This is where I almost wish this stuff was still in paper form (I know it is, and Judge Klausner actually requires paper pleadings in addition to electronic ones, but I can't see those from here, so please bear with me), as you would see the plaintiffs walk in with several heavy brown folders and just start piling them up.

Then again, I recall in the days before PCs were ubiquitous in law firms, that you would sometimes see a file that had its own office, it was so large. But usually those were wrongful death claims with multiple defendants such as you would see on complicated construction sites.
 
Has Axanar actually officially stated production is halted? I know RMB tweeted something about it, but have we actually seen an official statement to that effect?
 
axanar_coffee_tn.png

Can someone photoshop the above pic for a funny meme? :angel:
 
The original filing was when they were still intending to make the movie

Now they've stopped production/filming of Axanar, would they have to amend the paperwork to show this?

Nope. CBS and Paramount are amending the paperwork for specifics instances where Axanar has violated Copyright Infringement which shouldn't be too difficult to do. Alec Peters and his Minions think they have won but boy they're going to wish they were never born.
 
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