Judge Ronnie Abrams
‘Senior innovation executive" Faktor sought access to small businesses through SCORE. His "confidential email" further developing his pitch permitted SCORE employees to "pass along [his] email [and attachment] to any of the businesses they had in mind." Some five months after SCORE decided not to participate in Faktor’s venture, it partnered with Yahoo! Inc. in the "Remake America" series. SCORE offered free small business guidance to a featured struggling entrepreneur. District court dismissed Faktor’s lawsuit charging Yahoo! and SCORE with breach of fiduciary duty, constructive trust and unjust enrichment through their allegedly unauthorized use of his "business plans and ideas for a social-driven web series." Beyond inadequately alleged a fiduciary relationship with SCORE, Faktor’s unjust enrichment claim was preempted by Copyright Act §301. Noting the two-prong test for §301′s application, the court found Faktor’s idea "fixed in writing" because a one-page synopsis of his proposal was included in his "confidential email." The court also noted circuit precedent consistently holding that unjust enrichment claims do not contain an "extra element." Thus the test’s second "general scope requirement" prong was satisfied.
