Editions Play Bac v. Western Publishing Co.

1993 WL 541219 (1993)

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Editions Play Bac v. Western Publishing Co.

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
1993 WL 541219 (1993)

RW

Facts

Editions Play Bac, S.A. (Play Bac) (plaintiff) developed and marketed a popular French-language, educational question-and-answer game for children. Play Bac offered to license an English-language version of the game to Western Publishing Company (Western) (defendant). In the course of the ensuing negotiations, Play Bac explained its so-called game concept to Western. The concept included the game’s packaging design, Play Bac’s marketing strategy, and Play Bac’s approach to choosing the game’s questions and answers. Play Bac had adopted that approach after two years of research, which included analyzing the contents of children’s textbooks in consultation with French teachers and testing game prototypes on French schoolchildren. Negotiations between Play Bac and Western eventually broke down. Later, Western published an English-language children’s game with many similarities to the French game. Play Bac sued Western for trade-mark misappropriation under Wisconsin’s version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA). Play Bac asked the federal district court to enjoin Western from marketing its version of Play Bac’s game. Western moved for summary judgment.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Martin, J.)

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