Axanar Aims to Reassure Donors About Perks, Lawsuit Prospects

ALSO: Is the Lawsuit Behind Axanar’s Donor Store Re-branding as ‘Donor Station’?

In a “mid-summer update,” Axanar sought to assure Kickstarter backers about perks it stated were almost ready for delivery, and claimed the copyright lawsuit it faces from CBS and Paramount had merely “slowed us down.”

Axanar’s fulfillment director, Diana Kingsbury, posted the update on Axanar's blog on July 28, 2016, with a notice also sent to Indiegogo donors, even though the pending perks are for Kickstarter backers:

Note that patches from the Axanar Indiegogo campaign (from August 2015) will not begin to ship until AFTER those from the earlier Kickstarter campaign have been shipped.²⁾

In her post, Kingsbury characterized the lawsuit’s effect on Axanar as “an unexpected standstill,” but wrote to reassure donors:

On that front, we have an ever-expanding legal team working very hard — and pro bono! — for us, so although we can’t discuss any details, please know that things are progressing, and we remain optimistic for an eventual, positive resolution.³⁾

PROTO-TUNICS Starfleet uniforms to have been featured in Axanar are among the perks its fulfillment director promises are in production to be shipped soon. (Prototype design: Axanar website)

The post gave no details on how or why Axanar’s legal representation was expanding, or whether this meant additional lawyers at Winston & Strawn had been assigned to the case, or that more attorneys from another firm were joining, as producer Alec Peters had promised in February.

However, Axanar spokesman Mike Bawden said there have been no changes to the legal team. “There are, of course, a number of unsolicited advisors who offer their opinions from time to time,” he said, “but I’m not aware of any of them being added to the ‘Axanar legal team.’”⁴⁾

Meanwhile, Kingsbury reassured donors that software replacing the doomed Ares Digital was well on its way to completion in order to facilitate the delivery of perks to long-waiting donors who would still face a process before the promised patches could be dispatched:

Our new Chief Technology Officer, Bill Watters, says the bulk of the new Ares Digital platform has now been completed. … He plans to have the new site ready to roll out in the very near future… and as soon as he gives me the all-clear, I’ll be letting you know that it’s time to get yourselves over to the new site so that you’ll be able to check and update your account information (after which we will then have your current, correct shipping info, and can — at long last — get busy sending out thousands of patches!).⁵⁾

Tucked away in her post’s final paragraph, Kingsbury referred to a “Donor Station,”⁶⁾ a term seemingly replacing the “Donor Store” criticized for selling unlicensed Star Trek merchandise. Peters has refused to disclose how much revenue Axanar has realized from the apparently re-branded “Station.”

Reached via email, Bawden said Kingsbury’s post “was the first I’d heard of it.”⁷⁾

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