Addressing claims of copyright infringement and misappropriation
of trade secrets, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s
summary judgment in favor of the defendant finding that the shape
of a flash drive lacked originality as a derivative work, and that
the alleged trade secrets lacked “independent economic
value.” Direct Technologies, LLC v. Electronic Arts,
Inc., Case Nos. 14-56266; -56745 (9th Cir., Sept. 6, 2016)
(Gould, J).
The dispute between Direct Technologies (DT) and Electronic Arts
(EA) arose in connection with a prototype of a USB flash drive that
DT created at EA’s request for distribution with the release
of version three of The Sims, EA’s popular life
simulation computer game. DT designed the flash drive prototype to
resemble The Sims’ “Plumbob,” a
gem-shaped icon that appears over the head of a game character as
it moves throughout the game. After EA sent DT’s Plumbob
flash drive
