What rights does Paramount own? If I write a novel in Klingon and sell it, do I owe royalties to Paramount? [...] I'm not sure the law has honestly settled this in any country, has it?

I don't think this has ever been tested in court. I will say that it would be almost impossible to find a publisher willing to publish an actual book (a real, physical book, not an "e-Book") in Klingon without Paramount's permission, or in Loglan without the permission of the Loglan Institute.

The same is probably true of other conlangs too, even if copyright is not explicitly claimed by the conlang's author/owner. Copyright is assumed to be in force unless a work is explicitly put into the public domain.

The discussion of royalties is pretty much academic anyway. Many (most?) books published in Esperanto are money-losers, done more or less as a labor of love (hey, I buy Esperanto books and appreciate the work that the authors put into them, but I know it isn't possible to make a full-time living as an author exclusively of Esperanto works). It's seems to me a book written in a conlang even less widely-spoken than Esperanto (whether it's Klingon or Toki Pona or something even more obscure) is even less likely to be financially successful than one in Esperanto. The question of royalties is likely to be moot, since there won't be any serious royalties to speak of.

I agree with you all, in that, the only reason it hasn't been tested is because there haven't been any profits yet.

In all reality, I doubt we will see a novel in a conlang which winds up on the NYT's bestseller list in our lifetimes. But, I could foresee someone writing a parody song in Klingon and attempting to record it with the hope of attracting a cult following among trekkers. (trekkies? whatever...) Would they legally need consent from Paramount before releasing it? From what I've read about the court case dealing with the loglan/lojban dispute, I think they would.

andogigi:In all reality, I doubt we will see a novel in a conlang which winds up on the NYT's bestseller list in our lifetimes..

The Na'vi language might be able to produce a pretty popular book (not NYT's bestseller material though). And I bet you if there was some "Vampire" language in the Twilight movies that'd become EXTREMELY popular (and EXTREMELY unpopular for those of us who want to throw something at the producers of Twilight).

trojo:I don't think this has ever been tested in court. I will say that it would be almost impossible to find a publisher willing to publish an actual book (a real, physical book, not an "e-Book") in Klingon without Paramount's permission, or in Loglan without the permission of the Loglan Institute.

Actually, The Klingon Language Institute (www.kli.org) does have exclusive permission to publish works in Klingon from Paramount, and they have published translations of the Gilgamesh epoc and a few of Shakespeare's plays, and even the Tao Te Ching.

But you're right in general Paramount's lawyers are very free with cease and desist orders to others who attempt just about anything Star Trek related.