Case dismissed! Discovery and Tardigrade game "not similar"
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Actually, he said that many lawyers came to him offering to represent him. The fact that of all those lawyers he chose these two boggles the mind.
He got what he could get. .
They may have offered to represent him for a retainer he never could have paid. Anyone who looked at this closely would have realized if CBS chose not to settle early to get rid of a nuisance, they'd have a very difficult case on their hands that would tie up their firm for months. CBS could have been wagered on to fight this, as if they had settled, every one who ever penned a sci-fi idea that had some similar example would have lined up at the trough for their share of future settlement money. An example had to be made of this one.
I'm not going to get all calumny about the plaintiff. For all I know he may really feel like he was slighted. but he's like a musician carrying his guitar around all over town by the neck. He just doesn't have a case.
I think he does feel slighted but I think a lot of that is because he has a much better idea of what he wanted the project to be then the people watching the trailer and looking at his pictures ever did (which would include CBS) and he is having a hard time separating the two. As a result he's seeing similarities that nobody could see or even know about to steal.
The other two may have just said they'd do it Pro Bono - meaning he would pay court costs (IE filing fees, cost of any possible pre trial deposition, etc.) As you noted - the lawyer he picked is ponying up all those other costs that a standard Pro Bono lawyer would not.
Abdin may have had an approach in mind, and the lawyer he chose might have been the one who most agreed with his approach.
If so, that's not to say that Abdin would know best and would have been right to dismiss the advised approach of the other lawyers who offered services -- but right or not, sometimes the client thinks he knows best.
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Well, a case that was even better then Abdin's in which the people sueing actually pitched the idea has been withdrawn 2 days before trial.
https://deadline.com/2019/05/stranger-things-plagiarism-lawsuit-duffer-brothers-ended-1202607681/
https://deadline.com/2019/05/stranger-things-plagiarism-lawsuit-duffer-brothers-ended-1202607681/
Well, if I were Abdin - considering just the amount of similarities - I'd be pretty pissed too, and would likely try to go to court over that as well. That being said - even if you are right - don't expect to win. To win in such a case is not more realistic than to break out with your work on your own: You just shouldn't bank on it, and don't get upset if it didn't work out.
This is actually an interesting read. What sticks out to me is this little nugget:
That's IMO the right way the court approached the thing. As a result, Netflix did produce some early drafts of their own, and after seeing them the plaintiff in this case withdrew his plagiarism suit, even going on record saying:
In my honest opinion - this is how the Tardigrade-case whould have been handled as well. As @Campe98 layed so meticuously down in his post (https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/its-going-to-court.296468/page-70#post-12904459) the timeline of events very much seems like Discovery had already fully fleshed out their Tardigrade (though not yet publicised) at the time Abdin's Tardigrade appeared the first time in a trailer - simply the same idea being developed by two entities accidentally at the same time.
As such, I still think CBS should have taken a similar approach like this "Stranger Things" case - and simply shown a document or a sketch from early production. Then this case probably wouldn't have been drawn out as long as it did. Of course CBS' lawyers might have wanted to try to sit it out and see if the case fails beforehand (which it apparently currently is doing). But especially with a fandom as meticulous as the Trek fandom, I think a conclusion like this "Stranger Things"-case would have been received so, so much better, and we would have been spared tons and tons of YouTube commentary videos on the glaring similarities. Sometimes such coincidences just seem to happen - the "Stranger Things"-case looked even more suspicious than the Tardigrade. That makes such a clear-cut end to the case that much more convincing.
This is actually an interesting read. What sticks out to me is this little nugget:
That's IMO the right way the court approached the thing. As a result, Netflix did produce some early drafts of their own, and after seeing them the plaintiff in this case withdrew his plagiarism suit, even going on record saying:
In my honest opinion - this is how the Tardigrade-case whould have been handled as well. As @Campe98 layed so meticuously down in his post (https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/its-going-to-court.296468/page-70#post-12904459) the timeline of events very much seems like Discovery had already fully fleshed out their Tardigrade (though not yet publicised) at the time Abdin's Tardigrade appeared the first time in a trailer - simply the same idea being developed by two entities accidentally at the same time.
As such, I still think CBS should have taken a similar approach like this "Stranger Things" case - and simply shown a document or a sketch from early production. Then this case probably wouldn't have been drawn out as long as it did. Of course CBS' lawyers might have wanted to try to sit it out and see if the case fails beforehand (which it apparently currently is doing). But especially with a fandom as meticulous as the Trek fandom, I think a conclusion like this "Stranger Things"-case would have been received so, so much better, and we would have been spared tons and tons of YouTube commentary videos on the glaring similarities. Sometimes such coincidences just seem to happen - the "Stranger Things"-case looked even more suspicious than the Tardigrade. That makes such a clear-cut end to the case that much more convincing.
Stranger things didn’t provide those documents until the deposition phase which is a phase Tardigrade hasn’t gotten to.
Again you don’t play a court case for public option of the fans. You play it in court. What info the fans especially the midnights edge group want is irrelevant. What the court wants is what matters and that isn’t the info they have asked for.
Again you don’t play a court case for public option of the fans. You play it in court. What info the fans especially the midnights edge group want is irrelevant. What the court wants is what matters and that isn’t the info they have asked for.
Precisely. This matter is being handled appropriately and completely legally.
The timeline aspect is addressed at least indirectly in the motion to dismiss. However, the motion goes into more detail around the point that the tardigrades aren't even similar enough to each other for infringement anyway, so the timing is a secondary concern. It seems CBS’s legal strategy is to establish what constitutes “their” tardigrade to get ahead of the next crackpot that falls out of the woodwork.
Yep and they want to address what they can without producing "work product" into the public which is standard for many companies. Most production companies don't really want their behind the scenes stuff released publically and want to keep their processes and procedures as secret as possible. Even in the stranger things lawsuit above that was about to go to trial, the defndents tried to get an order that all work product type documents that came up in the trial be sealed. They lost that motion but they tried. That also shows that CBS not wanting to produce "here is pre-production emails about tardigrades" isn't unique. Most companies don't want that to be public so if CBS can attack the lawsuit initially other ways like on timelines provided by Abdin and published scientific information that is better at this stage.
That information will have to be handed over (but not made public) during discovery and depositions and would become public in a trial. CBS isn't going to make "work product" public until they have to not because they have anything to hide but because you just don't realease that kind of info unless you have to. Stranger Things came out in deposition and was strong enough to then convince the plaintiff the defense was right.
Yeah and what the TrekBBS fans want is irrelevant too. Clearly there is massive bias here on the Discovery board. I reckon if this guy gets to play this out in court the fans here will be shitting themselves that their favourite show ripped off someone else's work.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I get it. You don't go to court with the intent to fight fair. You want to win.
But as a spectator, it's also true that the resolution to the 'Stranger Things'-case looks definitely more legitimate than the Tardigrade-battle. Even if both cases are otherwise very comparable.
But that's a judgement call that CBS has to do themselves - weighing PR vs. the safest legal strategy. All I'm saying - with a fandom as anal as Trekkies - I'd have put a bit more mephasize on publicity as well. 'Stranger Things' is both more successfull, and has less people scrutinizing every behind-the-scenes info. And definitely less people openly complaining about it and mocking it. If they had the chance to get rid of that in one, fast swoop without really hurting their court strategy - even it it meant to actually expose a little of their work flow - IMO that could have been the wiser decision.
But as a spectator, it's also true that the resolution to the 'Stranger Things'-case looks definitely more legitimate than the Tardigrade-battle. Even if both cases are otherwise very comparable.
But that's a judgement call that CBS has to do themselves - weighing PR vs. the safest legal strategy. All I'm saying - with a fandom as anal as Trekkies - I'd have put a bit more mephasize on publicity as well. 'Stranger Things' is both more successfull, and has less people scrutinizing every behind-the-scenes info. And definitely less people openly complaining about it and mocking it. If they had the chance to get rid of that in one, fast swoop without really hurting their court strategy - even it it meant to actually expose a little of their work flow - IMO that could have been the wiser decision.
Unless he has some major prices of evidence that hasn’t been presented I find that unlikely.
For Tardigrade to end like stranger things you are loookng at a year down the road. We are not st the same phase of the proceedings.
Stranger things could have presented those documents at the same phase of the proceedings Tardigrade is at...they didn’t either.
Cbs has made their judgement call. Win the legal case.
And let’s be honest. Nothing cbs can do will be enough for the midnights edge of the world. Trying to placate them is a losing strategy.
Definitely not them. But probably people that have only tangentially heard of the case.
"I withdrew my claim, because I saw documents that prove they created the idea on their own" is MUCH harder to spin than "CBS won in course because I couldn't prove access, and we never even got to the similarities being looked at".
Weather intended or not - that Stranger Things case ended with a dicisive victory. The way the Tardigrade is shaping up, it'll end with a legal victory, a sore loser, and a split public perception. Again - much more Trekkies are aware of the case than Stanger Things fans have ever even heard of their case, simply because anyone watching ever anything Trek-related on Youtube ever gets bombarded with recommendations for these videos.
Well they didn’t, so you don’t need to worry about that.
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