Official Airlines Schedule Information Service, Inc. v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc.

333 F.2d 672

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Decided: July 13, 1964
• Docket: 20507_1
• Status: Published

Opinions

HUNTER, District Judge:

This is an action by Official Airlines Schedule Information Service, Inc. (OASIS) for injunction, damages and an accounting for “unjust enrichment” arising out of a radio program of Eastern Air Lines, Inc. (Eastern) called “Flite Facts” which is broadcast regularly on the hour in Boston, New York, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, New Orleans, Houston and Chicago to inform the traveling public concerning arrivals and departures of Eastern’s aircraft at those cities. The relevant facts are not in serious dispute.

In the winter of 1960-1961, OASIS approached Eastern and other major air carriers with a proposal for joint airline broadcasts of flight schedule information at Boston and Tampa, with the intention of expanding the broadcasts to other airline cities. For a consideration, OASIS would assemble information from each of the airlines serving Boston — the first city to be served under OASIS’ program — and would arrange for the hourly broadcast of delays and cancellations of airline flights at Boston, identifying the flights only by “Flight number, point of origin, stops en route, scheduled arrival time and new arrival time.” Eastern expressed doubts as to the feasibility of a joint “industry” approach to such information, but at the insistence of OASIS, Eastern considered the information offered voluntarily by OASIS and eventually concluded not to participate in the program, even when OASIS offered to allow Eastern to participate without cost.

Other airlines serving Boston participated in the OASIS program; some did not. After a 90-day experimental period, OASIS announced that those who had given financial support were reluctant to continue such support.

In March and April of 1962 Eastern began its “Flite Facts” program in Boston, New York, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, New Orleans, Houston and Chicago. This program was scheduled on the hour in each city and was limited to information concerning Eastern — arrivals and departures of Eastern’s aircraft, and also advertising and publicity with respect to new services offered by Eastern.

OASIS alleges that Eastern’s Flite Facts “appropriated” the OASIS “Plane Facts” idea which OASIS claims is “novel,” and that Eastern’s Flite Facts has caused the OASIS program to fail. OASIS seeks an injunction restraining Eastern from broadcasting Flite Facts “from any radio station in the United States”, and it seeks damages resulting from the alleged “usurpation and conversion” of OASIS’ allegedly “original and novel idea”, together with an accounting for “unjust enrichment” resulting from the alleged “usurpation and conversion” of the “property rights” of OASIS in its “original and novel idea”.

Eastern filed a motion to dismiss or for summary' judgment, supported by affidavits and a counter-affidavit was filed by OASIS (R. 23-50). The record includes the correspondence between the parties and full affidavits as to all facts which either party deemed relevant and material.

The trial court granted Eastern’s motion and dismissed the Complaint. We affirm.

The issue here is that of liability for the alleged appropriation of another’s idea. The jurisprudence sets forth the essential elements which a plaintiff is required to establish as a prerequisite to a right to relief in a case of this character. These elements generally are: (1) the idea must be novel; (2) the disclosure of the idea must be made in confidence, and (3) the idea must be adopted and made use of by the defendant. (Mitchell Novelty Co. v. United Mfg. Co., 7 C.A., 199 F.2d 462; DeFilippis v. Chrysler Corp., 2 C.A., 159 F.2d 478; Smoley v. New Jersey Zinc Co., 3 C.A., 106 F.2d 314; Lueddecke v. Chevrolet Motor Co., 8 C.A., 70 F.2d 345). These requisite elements of novelty, confidential relationship and use are all absent here.

The central concept in the OASIS idea was that radio and other mass communication media be employed to give to the public flight operations information concerning all airlines serving a particular community. Neither the briefs of counsel nor our independent research has provided us with decided cases or textual discussion of sufficient analogy to be employed as precise precedents or authority on the issue of novelty; but such a conception is, in our judgment, not sufficiently novel so as to give OASIS a monopoly on broadcasting such flight ■information throughout the United States. Accordingly, we hold as a matter of law that the idea of using radio or other mass communication media to broadcast flight information does not constitute such an original intellectual or ingenious concept as to be entitled to protection as a property right.

We next turn to the record before us and find that nowhere is there any suggestion that the OASIS idea was communicated to Eastern or any of the other airlines in confidence, or with an advance contract or understanding concerning the use of that idea. There is no factual problem concerning the question of confidential l-elationship. The problem here is whether one person, by his gratuitous and unilateral act, may impose upon another a confidential relationship. That he may not is clear. Lueddecke v. Chevrolet Motor Co., 8 C.A., 70 F.2d 345.

We have assumed in what we have said with respect to novelty and confidential relationship that Eastern did, in fact, adopt and use the OASIS idea. We would not, however, be misunderstood on this point. The assumption was made to test plaintiff’s cause of action upon the hypothesis most favorable to them. So tested, it nevertheless fails. Actually, however, the record is clear that Eastern did not adopt and use the OASIS idea. OASIS briefs its case as if it had offered to sell Eastern an idea which Eastern later used in its own business. This is just not true. All OASIS tried to do was to sell Eastern a service. The OASIS idea was a joint industry approach. The idea was to assemble flight information furnished by Eastern and other lines and then arrange to have that information broadcast to the public. Whatever rights OASIS might have had to its idea, it had no right to pre-empt the field of radio broadcasting so as to prevent Eastern from using radio for regular broadcasts concerning the airline’s own individual services. That is precisely what Eastern did.

If OASIS had offered to sell Eastern the idea of producing a joint airline radio broadcast and if Eastern had subsequently produced such a broadcast we would have a different question

Judgment affirmed.