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Plaintiffs Oppose Dismissal Motion
Main article: Lawsuit
See also: Summary of the legal complaint, Motion to dismiss, Plaintiffs' attorneys
DRAFT This article is still being drafted.
APR. 11 — The attorneys for CBS and Paramount filed two briefs today opposing the defense motion to dismiss their lawsuit against Axanar Productions and producer Alec Peters for infringing on the studios’ Star Trek copyrights.
The studios’ attorneys, Loeb & Loeb filed two briefs:
- One 26-page document opposing the motion to dismiss filed two weeks before by the firm defending Axanar, Winston & Strawn.
- A supplemental nine-page document opposing the corresponding request for judicial notice filed by Winston’s lead attorney, Erin Ranahan, supporting the dismissal motion.
Plausible Copyright Infringement
The opposition brief re-states the allegations in the legal complaint that defendants Peters, his company Axanar Productions and up to 20 as-yet-unnamed 'Doe’ defendants “have attempted to recreate the entire look and feel of Plaintiffs’ works and have stated that they are producing an authentic “Star Trek film.” In order to create these infringing derivative works, Defendants have used numerous Star Trek elements, including copyrighted characters, stories, sets, costumes, etc., all without Plaintiffs’ consent.1)
In its motion to dismiss CBS and Paramounts legal complaint, the defense alleged:
- Elements are not protected by copyright. “The amended allegations go beyond the plausible realm of copyright protection,” the motion stated. Such elements without protection include clothing, colors, shapes, words, short phrases, works derived from nature, public domain and third-party works, the Klingon language, scènes à faire, certain characters, and ideas — including the “mood and theme” of scifi.2)
- Allegations are not specific enough. Even if the alleged infringing elements were protected, the defense asserted the violations aren’t sufficiently specific. “While Plaintiffs allege that they own ‘more than 700’ Star Trek television episodes, a dozen motion pictures, and four books, they still fail to specify which of those copyrights Defendants have allegedly infringed.”3)
In response, the plaintiffs’ brief strikes back at the defense’s reductionist argument that breaks up each copyrighted Star Trek element into constituent parts that are themselves not protected by copyright.
Copyrightable Star Trek Elements
Writing on behalf of plaintiffs CBS and Paramount, Loeb attorney David Grossman argued:
Costumes
Dialogue
Public Domain
Language
Mood and Theme
Scènes à Faire
Characters
Proper Copyright Pleading
Sufficiently Detailed
Facts Under Defendants' Control
Plaintiffs' Claims Not Premature
'Ripe' Controversy
Copyright Injunction & First Amendment
Opposition to Request for Judicial Notice
Defendants have lifted numerous specific characters (such as Garth of Izar and Soval), settings (including several fictional planets), races (such as Klingons and Vulcans), copyrighted vessels (such as the U.S.S. Enterprise and other Federation and Klingon spaceships), dialogue and much more. Defendants have bodily appropriated the Star Trek universe — admittedly so in order to create an authentic prequel to The Original Series. The Complaint adequately and “plausibly” alleges copyright infringement and Defendants’ motion should be denied.4)
AxaMonitor‘s Carlos Pedraza live-tweeted what he found in the briefs. Follow our Twitter feed here — AxaMonitor
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