Is there any record of litigation over someone making their own Star Trek items?

Well, there is some history of litigation in Star Trek, but it tends to not be Paramount vs. the Little Guy, it tends to be actors/writers against Paramount. Two examples: Leonard Nimoy sued Paramount for licensing moneys around his image (Paramount in the 70s licensed images of Spock selling beer, or his head as a liquor decanter) and Harlan Ellison sued over money he felt he was owed for writing teh episode City on the Edge of Forever (again, a licensing issue). Another (almost) example: Gene Roddenberry himself was threatened by Paramount when they found out his Lincoln Enterprises mail-order business was selling film cells cut from movie reels that Gene had… “acquired” from the studio.

Does Paramount “sue” the little guys, who build phaser and starship model kits? If those little guys are making money off it, they can (and every right to – Trek is their intellectual proprety). Would they? Probably not. I heard way back in 2002 they got a federal court to allow them to seize bootleg merchandise from conventions in multiple cities… Here’s an excerpt from the story:

A federal court in Cleveland granted Viacom’s Paramount unit an order allowing it to seize bootleg “Star Trek” merchandise sold at sci-fi conventions in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dearborn MI, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Orlando, Pasadena CA, Tampa, and Tucson. The suit is aimed at bootleggers who sell everything from counterfeit action figures representing the characters in the “Star Trek” TV series and movies to T-shirts and caps. The court order allows process servers acting on Paramount’s behalf to seize merchandise without having to obtain a local order in each city where the items are being sold.

Did they do it? I cant find any news story about it actually happpening, and I think that cooler heads may have prevailed (after fan backlash). Which is why I think the odds of something like it happening again is slim to none. If you go to a Trek con you see dozens of hand-made or limited production Trek items. You can buy hundreds of unauthorized Trek products at CafePress.com. You can buy great unauthorized costumes at cosplaysky.com. There’s scores of limited edition models at starfleetmodeler.net. Writer David Gerrold sells tribbles and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t pay a licensing fee to Paramount/Viacom. Heck, there are even new episodes of the original Star Trek being made by two different groups of actors and fans!

The “dirty little secret” here is this: if you are really hugelly successful, Paramount can and will come knocking on your door with a nice fat cease and desist letter. If you are only selling a few here and there, you should be fine. It’s not iust about preserving their IP rights… it’s all about the benjamins.

(Note: I am not a lawyer and this is not really legal advice. For that, you should talk to one of them legal-type-fellas.)

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