hot news test
hot-news test. Intellectual property. A judicial test for determining whether a misappropriation claim is preempted by the Sears–Compco doctrine by analyzing whether, in addition to the elements of copyright infringement, the claim also requires proof of (1) time-sensitive information collected at a cost to the plaintiff, (2) unfair use of that information by a directly competing defendant who has made no similar investment, and (3) a consequent threat to the plaintiff’s commercial existence.