Defendant Rang, a sports writer, published NFS’s proprietary “Player Grades” intended for use by its customer football teams. The Western District of Washington denied cross-motions for summary judgment finding questions of material fact as to whether plaintiff’s subjective assessments represented by the player grades were protectable as trade secrets.
The court first addressed the issue of whether Rang had violated copyright law through release of the National’s player grades. Finding three of the four fair use factors weighed in Rang’s favor, the court decided that while the grades were copyrightable, Rang’s use of the grades constituted fair use. On the issue of trade secret misappropriation, the court found that the grades did constitute “information” under the relevant trade secrets statute, and therefore, could be considered trade secrets. However, the court found that any determination on whether the grades were in fact trade secrets was an issue for a jury, since questions remained over whether National made reasonable attempts to protect the secrecy of the grades.