Paramount Will End Case Against Fan-Funded Star Trek Film

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Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios plan to end their lawsuit against the crowdfunded Star Trek spin-off 'Prelude to Axanar', director J. J. Abrams has announced. While the parties have yet to submit the paperwork to court, they are finalizing their settlement discussions.

axanarEarlier this year Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios filed a lawsuit against the makers of a Star Trek inspired fan film, accusing them of copyright infringement.

The dispute centers around the well-received short film Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar and the planned follow-up feature film Axanar.

Among other things, the Star Trek rightsholders claim ownership over various Star Trek related settings, characters, species, clothing, colors, shapes, words, short phrases and even the Klingon language.

While the legal battle has barely got going it now appears it will soon end. During a Star Trek fan event on Friday, director J.J. Abrams announced that the case will be over soon, thanks to Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin.

“We started talking about this realizing that this is not an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans should be celebrating this thing,” Abrams said.

“Fans of Star Trek are part of this world. So Justin went to the studio and pushed them to stop this lawsuit and now, within the next few weeks, it will be announced this is going away, and the fans will be able to work on their project,” he adds.

The news is welcomed by Axanar director Alec Peters, who posted a short message on Facebook a few hours ago.

“A huge THANK YOU to JJ Abrams and Justin Lin for their announcement last night that Paramount is dropping the suit against Axanar,” he writes.

However, the case isn’t completely over yet. The parties are still working on finalizing a settlement agreement and no official paperwork has yet been filed in court.

A settlement means that the case won’t be dismissed outright, but that the parties are coming to an agreement they are all satisfied with. Whether they intend to release any details on the nature of their agreement remains unclear at this point.

When Paramount and CBS filed the lawsuit earlier this year they accused the makers of exploiting the Star Trek franchise, so it’s likely that they are looking for financial compensation.

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