Trek Fan Film Makers Seek to Compel Discovery in Paramount/CBS Suit

The makers of a Star Trek fan film produced more than 31,000 pages of documents for Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios, but those programmers suing them have only "trickled in documents ... after the agreed upon exchange date had passed, and produced far less than what Defendants have provided," said Axanar Productions and principle Alec Peters in a joint stipulation (in Pacer) on defendants' motion to compel discovery. Paramount/CBS sued in 2015, alleging copyright violations of the Star Trek universe in the Prelude to Axanar film that was distributed free online. In their motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Axanar/Peters said they want documents and testimony about financial information on the alleged damages, plus information needed to investigate the Paramount/CBS allegations of willful infringement and chain of title information related to allegations of ownership. The plaintiffs in their preliminary statement in the joint motion called the Axanar/Peters claims "argumentative, self-serving and deliberately misleading." Paramount/CBS said Axanar/Peters are trying to compel production of documents "that do not exist," and in many cases, the plaintiffs agreed to provide the requested information.