@Rahul
Read.
The legal system is not a "okay, all cards on the table and then we fight" system. It is a "let me prove you should spend your time on this" system.
Listen.
Because you seem to have missed it the last 76 pages.
Nobody besides CBS and Abdin himself actually gives a shit about the legal specifics of this court case. People care about the "truth" behind it.
Sor us - the viewers - weather CBS has to pay a penny to Abdin or not is of as secondary of importance as audience ratings, profit margins, subscriber numbers or shareholder pay outs.
They matter only in so their influence over the final product we're consuming.
The Tardigrade was the one(!) unique SF concept from the first season I actually really liked, because it was so bonkers. If I'd find out that
that was wholefully plagiarised, it'd sour me a lot about the rest of the season. Conversely - as it seems they didn't - I'd have more confidence in the creative abilities of the makers of the show.
And yeah, CBS clearly prioritized to keep this case as low-profile as possible. But that simply hasn't succeeded. And if they really have such a clear cut case, a simple statement like "when plaintiff was releasing his first version of the Tardigrade, we were already in the post-production phase of our Tardigrade" would have been
way more convincing. And honestly wouldn't have negatively influenced their standing in court one bit. As it happened - only Abdin went to the press. And he has a really convincing case on first glance. Only if you go really into the weeds - like, page 71 on a DIS fan forum board - you find the first, actual convincing defense for CBS.
They might win the court case. Nobody ever doubted it - hell, they probably would have won even if they
did stole the idea. But they really dropped the ball on convicing anyone else but the court that they created their idea independant. And for a whole franchise that expects it's few hardcore consumers to keep an entire streaming service alive - people that really go above and beyond to seek out information for their IP themselves, and thus probably stumble on this case -
public credibility of their fandom is kinda' important.