Main article: CBS Studios
See also: CBS-Viacom split

In his account of an August 2015 meeting with CBS, Axanar producer Alec Peters named two CBS officials from whom he sought guidance regarding what kind of activities Axanar Productions could engage in surrounding production of its film, Axanar.

John Van Citters of CBS Licensing and Bill Burke of CBS Consumer Products … told us they would not tell us what we could or could not do. And contrary to popular myth, there are no guidelines by CBS. In fact they refuse to give any guidelines to fan films.¹⁾

Bill Burke

Peters emerged from the meeting prepared to move ahead with production of Axanar; CBS, on the other hand, sounded like it was preparing to take legal action.²⁾

Here are the profiles of the two men Peters met with:

John Van Citters

CBS Consumer Products is a unit of the CBS Corporation. It manages the worldwide licensing, merchandising, and video activities for a diverse slate of properties, including Star Trek, owned or controlled by the CBS Corporation, including CBS Television Studios and CBS Television Distribution, as well as from the company’s extensive library of titles, Showtime and CBS Films. Additionally, the group oversees online sales of programming merchandise.³⁾

Bill Burke is senior vice-president of marketing at CBS Consumer Products. He works in New York City. Burke leads marketing strategy for CBS Consumer Products properties.

John Van Citters has been vice president of product development at CBS Consumer Products in Los Angeles since 2006.

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