Judge won’t rule on Klingon in ‘Star Trek’ copyright row

A US judge has allowed a copyright dispute centring on a “Star Trek” tribute film to proceed, but has rejected a call to consider whether Klingon, the language used in the franchise, can be protected by copyright.

In an order handed down on Monday, May 9, Judge Robert Gary Klausner rejected an amicus brief filed by the Language Creation Society (LCS) that supported Axanar Studios, a company attempting to create a “Star Trek” tribute film.

LCS, in a brief written partly in Klingon, urged the court to dismiss the original infringement claim against Axanar that had argued the language was too broad to be granted copyright protection.

The LCS brief added that “no court has squarely addressed the issue of whether a constructed spoken language is entitled to copyright protection”.

But in Monday’s order, Klausner, a judge at the US District Court for the Central District of California, wrote: “In analysing and ruling on defendants’ motion to dismiss, the court does not reach the issue of whether languages, and specifically the Klingon language, are copyrightable.”

He added: “Therefore, none of the information provided by amicus is necessary to dispose of the motion to dismiss.”

Paramount Pictures and broadcaster CBS sued Axanar earlier this year.

In the complaint, the media companies said the film, “Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar”, uses characters, species, themes and costumes made famous by the hit show without permission.

They added that the appearance of the Klingons and Vulcans, species that both feature in the franchise, and the language they speak are copyrightable and that their inclusion in the film is infringing.

Axanar raised more than $600,000 for the film from more than 8,000 donors on Kickstarter. It was released in 2014. A script for a follow up film “Axanar” has been completed and the studio is raising money for the project on crowdfunding website Indiegogo.