I don’t usually get breaking news as it happens, but Judge Magistrate Charles Eick just ruled on the Axanar defense team’s motion to have the court compel discovery (force the studios to deliver documents they were refusing to produce for the defense to look over before trial).
I was in court myself observing this morning, and I hadn’t expected the judge to rule so quickly. But Judge Eick understood that, with only 12 days left until the close of the discovery period, the clock was ticking.
His ruling JUST came out, and I don’t even have the full text yet. All I have is this summary:
On or before October 28, 2016, Plaintiffs shall…
- serve supplemental responses without objection, and produce all documents responsive to, the following requests (except documents withheld under claim of attorney-client privilege): 14, 35, 36, 37 (limited to the works allegedly infringed and also limited to documents (which may be summary documents) sufficient to show revenues and profitability), 17 (limited to 2009 to the present), 18 (limited to 2009 to the present), 21, 25 and 29;
- serve supplemental answers without objection to Interrogatories Nos. 8 and 9
- produce for deposition a witness or witnesses prepared to testify as to Deposition Testimony Subject No. 28;
- serve a privilege log identifying with particularity all documents withheld under claim of attorney- client privilege; and
- to the extent not otherwise ordered herein, fulfill all discovery-related promises previously made by Plaintiffs to Defendants.
In short, Axanar got pretty much everything they wanted and the studios are going to have a VERY busy week ahead.
Now, I’m going to need a couple of days to parse this all out and translate it from legalese into lay-person’s English. So please be patient. (During that time, I’ve also Jayden’s karate class, soccer practice, a friend’s birthday, a soccer game, and a birthday party for one of Jayden’s classmates. And so this is why I don’t blog professionally.)
But short summary: big win for Axanar during the discovery phase. The actual trial is completely separate, but for right now, the defense is going to have a very happy weekend.
Four weeks ago, I wrote a 
JJ Abrams and Justin Lin have every reason to think like lawyers. After all, they make a lot of money from Star Trek, and if there’s a chance something will damage that brand and result in Star Trek making less money, that affects at least part of their livelihood.