Question: Landsberg wrote a manual for winning at Scrabble. He then contacted the owners of the Scrabble game asking for permission to sell this manual under the Scrabble trademark. Instead, owners of the Scrabble game requested a copy of the manual. Later, the owners published their own strategy manual. Since no express contract was entered into between Landsberg and the Scrabble owners, Landsberg received no compensation for his manual. Landsberg sued the Scrabble owners, contending that the disclosure of his manual was confidential and for the limited purpose of obtaining permission for the use of the Scrabble trademark.
Landsberg further contended that if the Scrabble owners intended to use his manual commercially, although there was no formal contract to do so, he should by implication have received adequate payment after some sort of negotiation. The Scrabble owners should not have assumed that the manual was given to them by Landsberg for free. Was Landsberg correct? (Landsberg v. Scrabble Crossword Game Players, Inc., 802 F.2d 1193)