WRENCH LLC, a Michigan Limited Liability Company; JOSEPH SHIELDS; THOMAS RINKS, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. TACO BELL CORP., Defendant-Appellee., 256 F.3d 446

Summary

At issue on appeal was the extent to which the Copyright Act preempts state law claims based on breach of an implied-in-fact contract. Plaintiffs, creators of a "Psycho Chihuahua" character and their company, brought suit against defendant, a national fast food chain, claiming breach of implied contract and various torts related to defendant's alleged use of their ideas. On appeal, plaintiffs argued, inter alia, that the district court erred in its preemption analysis under both the "subject matter" and "equivalency" prongs of 17 U.S.C.S. § 301(a), and that their ideas and concepts lacked novelty as a matter of law. The court of appeals reversed summary judgment on finding that the district court erred with respect to the equivalency prong of the preemption analysis and the plaintiffs' state law implied-in-fact contract claim was not preempted by the Copyright Act. Specifically, the court noted that defendant did not claim that it was aware of plaintiffs' ideas prior to disclosure and ...