I think I read something somewhere about this sort of thing happening with movie scripts. The issue is that if somebody sends in the script and anyone in the studio actually looked at the script, and then didn’t make a movie based on it the scriptwriter now has all sorts of opportunities to sue the studio if they ever make something that uses so much as a single word used in that script (not literally, but things like broad concepts might be replicated between scripts). Because they could argue they are not being compensated for their work. Even if the studio never even wanted the damn script.
I think I read something somewhere about this sort of thing happening with movie scripts. The issue is that if somebody sends in the script and anyone in the studio actually looked at the script, and then didn’t make a movie based on it the scriptwriter now has all sorts of opportunities to sue the studio if they ever make something that uses so much as a single word used in that script (not literally, but things like broad concepts might be replicated between scripts). Because they could argue they are not being compensated for their work. Even if the studio never even wanted the damn script.
It happened when that one guy sewed Paramount over Star Trek: Discovery season one using a space tardigrade.
Well that’s a bit different because he never actually sent them a script so they actually did steal that.
The court also found that although both works employ the concept of a tardigrade flying in space, this concept is “associated in popular culture with the tardigrade and not original to plaintiff’s work,”