Valueselling Associates, Llc v. Kevin Temple

MEMORANDUM

Appellant ValueSelling Associates, LLC (VSA) appeals the district court’s denial of its motion to vacate, modify, or correct an arbitration award. We affirm.

1. We may vacate an award under the Federal Arbitration Act only if the award “fails to draw its essence from the agreement,” or “exhibits a manifest disregard of law.” Biller v. Toyota Motor Corp., 668 F.3d 655, 665 (9th Cir.2012) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

2. VSA points to nothing in the arbitration record that the district court should have reviewed to warrant vacatur, modification, or correction of the arbitration award. In keeping with the intrinsic / extrinsic test set out in Mattel, Inc. v. MGA Entertainment, 616 F.3d 904 , 913-14 (9th Cir.2010), as amended, the arbitrator determined that the similar components of the Value Selling Program (VSP) and the Enterprise Selling Program (ESP) were not entitled to copyright protection and, alternatively, were neither “substantially similar,” nor “virtually identical.” These legal conclusions, even if erroneous, do not evince “manifest disregard” of the law. Matthews v. Nat’l Football League Mgmt. Council, 688 F.3d 1107, 1115 (9th Cir.2012)…