USA: Lewis v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, No. 13-17391, 18 December 2015

Recordings used by defendants Activision Blizzard, Inc., and Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (collectively, Blizzard) of a former employee’s voice for a character in a video game constituted a “work made for hire” under the Copyright Act, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (Lewis v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., December 18, 2015, per curiam). Thus, a decision by the federal district court in Oakland was affirmed. Also affirmed was the district court’s ruling that the Copyright Act preempted Lewis’ state law claims for the alleged commercial misappropriation of her voice and quantum meruit.

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.