Axanar Defense: Remove “Star Trek” Name
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Lawyer Erin Ranahan, who represents Axanar Productions in the current court case between Paramount Pictures/CBS Studios and Axanar Productions, would like the Star Trek name to be removed from that lawsuit.
Her reasoning is that the name turns a copyright infringement case into a trademark infringement case and would “color, cloud and confuse the views of the court and the jury in this case.”
Lawyers for Paramount and CBS though, disagree and they released a statement on the matter. “This is a copyright case, and defendants have denied copying Star Trek in order to create Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar and Star Trek: Axanar. The fact that defendants (prior to the filing of this lawsuit) heavily used the term Star Trek in their works, in their promotional materials, and in every one of their discussions regarding the content of their works, is highly relevant to whether or not defendants intended to copy, and did copy, plaintiffs’ works, and whether they were intended to be, and are in fact substantially similar, to plaintiffs’ works.
“Defendants have more recently renamed the Axanar works to exclude Star Trek, but that fact does not erase defendants’ prior conduct, or render defendants’ previous statements and conduct inadmissible for this trial. Far from it, defendants’ use of the terms Star Trek (deliberately and repeatedly) is critical to this trial.”
A ruling on this matter, as well as on other filed motions, could take place this week.
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