Paramount and CBS Studios went to court in 2016 to enforce rights over what fictional language when the fan-funded Axanar company sought to produce a prequel to a popular 1966-founded franchise set originally in the 23rd century?
Prelude to Axanar Axanar, a major clash between the Federation and the Klingons. Alec Peters began work on the Axanar series in 2010. Paramount Studios, who owns the rights to the "Star Trek" film production franchise (as opposed to CBS, which has the TV rights), traditionally allows fan-made projects to move forward just "as long as they agree not to sell anything—including tickets, merchandise, or copies of the finished film or series." These limitations made financing a fan film difficult, so Peters turned to Kickstarter and a fan funding campaign which eventually exceeded his initial funding goal of $10,000 by raising $101,000. The
Prelude to Axanar had no apparent effect on the lawsuit, since the case was scheduled for a jury trial in early 2017. On June 23, 2016, Paramount and CBS released new fan film guidelines, which Axanar staff described as "disheartening" and "draconian." On January 5, 2017, U.S. District Court judge R. Gary Klausner rejected various motions by both parties, setting the stage for a civil trial on the matter to go forward on January 31. On January 20, 2017, the parties announced that the lawsuit had been settled, with Alec Peters and Axanar Productions promising to make "substantial changes" to "Axanar" and agreeing