Court hears copyright does not protect Klingon language and other Star Trek

Court hears copyright does not protect Klingon language and other Star Trek related features

DID you know copyright does not protect the Klingon language, Vulcan’s pointy ears or phaser weapons from Star Trek?
Well, this is what the defendants of the world’s nerdiest legal battle will have you believe.

Amateur filmmaker Alec Peters and his production company Axanar productions are currently fighting it out in court with Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios.

The dispute centres around Mr Peters’ highly-popular short film called Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar and the forthcoming follow-up feature film Axanar.he 55-year-old began working on the projects half a decade ago with his short film quickly became a hit after raising more than $A130,000 through

An amount that seems minuscule when compared to the $A831,000 he raised on Kickstarter to fund the feature.

The large sums of money involved in the crowd-funding were enough to gain the interest of Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios, with both companies filing a complaint with a California federal court.

In their complaint, the right holders claimed the use Star Trek related features such as the Klingon language, Vulcan’s pointy ears and phaser weapons were all infringing copyright.

The defendants hit back, claiming a number of the “infringing elements” outlined in the complaint were not protected by copyright at all.

“The Klingon language itself is an idea or a system, and is not copyrightable,” they wrote, reported TorrentFreak.

“The mere allegation that defendants used the Klingon language, without any allegation that defendants copied plaintiffs’ particular expression of that language, is therefore insufficient to state a claim for copyright infringement as to any protected element.”

To further push the point, the defendants stressed the appearance of Vulcans and heat-ray phaser weapons existed in science-fiction long before Star Trek came to existence.

“Vulcan appearance: a species with ‘pointy ears’ is not original to Star Trek, and has appeared in many fictional fantasy works depicting imaginary humanoid species predating Star Trek, including, but not limited to, vampires, elves, fairies, and werewolves, as well as in many animals in nature,” they wrote.

“Phasers are also known as heat-ray weapons, which have existed in science fiction since H.G. Wells’ ‘War of the Worlds’ in 1898.”

In a final ditch effort have to the court dismiss the case, Axanar Productions said it believed the copyright infringement allegations were not specific enough.

“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.”