Meshwerks, Inc. v. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc.

528 F.3d 1258 (10th Cir. 2008)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

Saatchi & Saatchi, an advertising agency, convinced Toyota to use digital models of Toyota's vehicles on Toyota's website and in various other media. Digital models have substantial advantages over the product photographs for which they substitute. With a few clicks of a computer mouse, the advertiser can change the color of the car, and its surroundings, and even edit its physical dimensions to portray changes in vehicle styling. Saatchi and Toyota hired Grace & Wild, Inc. (GW) and GW subcontracted with P to assist with digitization and modeling. Digitizing involves collecting physical data points from the object to be portrayed. P took copious measurements of Toyota's vehicles by covering each car, truck, and van with a grid of tape and running an articulated arm tethered to a computer over the vehicle to measure all points of intersection in the grid. Modeling software then generated a digital image resembling a wire-frame model. The data points were mapped onto a computerized grid and the modeling software connected the dots to create a 'wireframe' of each vehicle. P then fine-tuned or, as the company prefers it, 'sculpted,' the lines on screen to resemble each vehicle as closely as possible. P claims that 90 percent of the data points contained in each final model were the result not of the first-step measurement process, but the skill and effort its digital sculptors manually expended in sculpting. Details, such as wheels, headlights, door handles, and the Toyota emblem, could not be accurately measured using current technology; those features had to be added at the second 'sculpting' stage, and P had to recreate those features as realistically as possible by hand, based on photographs. P also faced the challenge of converting measurements taken of a three-dimensional car into a two-dimensional computer representation. P used the skill of its modelers to move data points to achieve a visually convincing result. P produced two-dimensional wire-frame depictions of Toyota's vehicles that appeared three-dimensional on screen, all lacking color, shading, and other details. GW then manipulated the computerized models by adding detail and digitally applying color, texture, lighting, and animation for use in Toyota's advertisements. The GW digital models were then sent to Saatchi to be employed in a number of advertisements. P claims it contracted with GW for only a single use of its models as part of one Toyota television commercial. P claims that Ds in violation of copyright laws as well as the parties' agreement -- reused and redistributed the models created by P in a host of other media. P had sought and received copyright registration on its wire-frame models. P sued Ds. Ds moved for summary judgment based on originality. The district court agreed. It found that the wire-frame models were merely copies of Toyota's products, not sufficiently original to warrant copyright protection. It held that P's 'intent was to replicate, as exactly as possible, the image of certain Toyota vehicles.' P appealed.