Did CDPR pay the owners of Star Trek $ to reference The Borg in CB77?

[JackiesBasketball]

A few times I have noticed characters talking about the Maelstrom, or just characters who are heavily cyberwared, as 'Borg', or 'Borg-ed Out'.
I assume this is a Star Trek reference.

Example is 1 of the last side quests in Phantom Liberty Dogtown. The massacre mission.

Did CDPR need to pay some money to the Star Trek owners for permission to reference The Borg?

Or is The Borg simply part of the real world's zeitgeist now, and part of Fair Use Law?

Thanks!

 

[AlienSpaceBats]

In Cyberpunk's case I always assumed the word is a slang term that came from Cyborg, the term was coined in the 1960s.

Borged out likely just refers to a user who has many enhancements and visually as lost a great deal of their humanity.
The term also predates the appearance of The Borg in Star Trek, oddly enough they were introduced in the same year that the Van Damme vehicle Cyborg was released (1989).

 

[DjSpyder]

I don't think its a reference to star trek, at least not directly. I think it's just about someone going over the top with their implants, think Cyborg the general sense not "The Borg" at least that's always been my interpretation, Star Trek is certaintly not the first thing that pops into my mind when playing CP2077

From a legal stand point, "Borged Out" or saying "Full Borg" and "The Borg" are probably distinct enough there wouldn't be a case, Borged out meaning "fully cyborg" Obviously Star Trek doesn't own the idea of cyborgs just the faction of "The Borg" and I'd say the characters in Cp2077 are very much uniquely different...... Although even if it were a direct reference it would most likely fall under fair use, Think something like "The Big Bang Theory"..... the characters are all nerds and reference comics and pop culture all the time, just referencing that something exists is generally considered fine.

But to be fair, I'm not a lawyer and that's just my understanding of it so

 

[JackiesBasketball]

ok that makes sense. And I am very sad that I did not realize Borg is short for Cyborg until now. And I call myself a Star Trek fan.
I have shamed my forefathers this day

 

[R001c]

Besides Star trek might have to pay Dr WHO. They came up with Cybermen in 1966. They are viisually different but thematically they are exactly the same as the Borg.