Blackwell v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

William Blackwell (plaintiff) was a sound professional who provided video-game companies with audio services, including voiceover-actor casting. Blackwell kept a database of contact information for roughly 70 actors willing to perform union and nonunion voiceover work. Blackwell considered the database confidential because actors who performed nonunion work risked their union membership. However, Blackwell typically disclosed relevant actors’ contact information to the video-game companies without requiring the companies to sign confidentiality agreements or otherwise indicating that the information was proprietary. In 2005, Russell Brower hired Blackwell’s company to provide audio work for Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (Blizzard) (defendant), which developed video games, including World of Warcraft. In late 2005, Blizzard hired Blackwell for a newly created Audio Lead position. Blackwell signed a Confidential and Proprietary Rights Assignment Agreement (the agreement), which required Blackwell to assign to Blizzard any ownership rights in games, works, or other things that Blackwell helped to develop during his employment. Although Blackwell had the opportunity to identify his original works that would be excluded from the agreement’s assignment provisions, Blackwell did not identify the contacts database. Blackwell also did not assert the database’s confidentiality even after Brower specifically implied that Blizzard was hiring Blackwell for Blackwell’s actor contacts. Sometime in 2006, Blackwell gave his contacts database to two Blizzard production assistants (PAs) at Brower’s request so that the PAs could begin scheduling actor auditions. Blackwell did not tell the PAs that the information was proprietary or confidential. Blackwell subsequently learned that one PA was compiling an actor-contacts database based on Blackwell’s database. Blackwell also learned that the PA was behaving inappropriately toward auditioning actors. Blackwell complained about the PA, but Brower claimed that Blackwell was handling the situation unprofessionally. Blizzard’s human-resources department chastised Blackwell, and Blackwell became concerned that Blizzard planned to terminate him. Blackwell resigned and sued Blizzard, asserting misappropriation of trade secrets under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA) and common-law fraud and negligent misrepresentation. According to Blackwell, Blizzard had hired Blackwell under false pretenses so that Blizzard could wrongfully usurp Blackwell’s proprietary database. The trial court granted summary judgment for Blizzard, and Blackwell appealed.