Amidst an ongoing copyright-infringement case between CBS, Paramount and the crowdfunded fan film "Star Trek: Axanar," the two media companies outlined several guidelines for any future Star Trek fan productions.
In an open letter to fans, CBS and Paramount wrote that they want to support and encourage fan creativity. The guidelines also state that the companies "will not object to, or take legal action against, Star Trek fan productions that are nonprofessional and amateur and meet the following guidelines."
Sounds like Justin Lin and J.J. Abrams didn't have enough clout to make the lawsuit "go away" after all...
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday June 26 2016, @05:45PM
Also, this is as much a trademark thing as anything else and that's never been limited in time
Are you referring to trademark in the names and likenesses of a work? Exclusive rights in such marks become much weaker once the U.S. copyright has expired. Fox tried using rights under the Lanham Act as an ersatz copyright and got smacked down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dastar v. Fox [wikipedia.org].