Starfleet Academy is not the same as the Picard show. The Starfleet Academy show has different showrunners (they are now running Dynasty on the CW). I still feel we are going to get a Pike-show as well...
Yep! 'Star Trek' itself is trademarked, so any other entity beyond CBS trying to use 'Star Trek :InsertNameHere' could not legally get away with it. Trademarking these Star Trek; xxx names just adds another layer of protection for them.
The adventures of a "lower-deck" crew on an unimportant Federation ship? Does anyone notice this plot sounds so similar to "The Orville"??
No. The Orville focuses on a ship's senior staff. It's just not the flagship, but then neither were DS9 or Voyager or Disco.