## Facts

- Toyota and its advertising agency planned a model-year 2004 campaign using 3D digital vehicle models instead of photographs.
- Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi hired Grace & Wild to supply the models; Grace & Wild subcontracted Meshwerks to perform digitization and base-layer modeling.
- Meshwerks created three-dimensional, untextured wire-frame models by measuring Toyota vehicles and converting the measurements into digital geometry.
- The models were intended to be highly accurate depictions of Toyota’s vehicles and to function as neutral base models that other vendors would later add textures, lighting, backgrounds, and other elements to for ads.
- Meshwerks claimed it licensed the models for single use and alleged defendants reused them beyond the contemplated scope.
- Meshwerks sued for copyright infringement and related state-law claims based on alleged unauthorized reuse.

## Issues

1. Whether Meshwerks’ digital wire-frame models contained sufficient originality to qualify for copyright protection.
2. Whether highly accurate, unadorned digital depictions that intentionally add no expressive elements are protectable expression or uncopyrightable replication of the underlying предмет depicted.

## Decision

- The Tenth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for defendants on the copyright claim.
- The court held Meshwerks’ models were not copyrightable because they deliberately reproduced Toyota’s vehicle designs and contained no independent expressive contribution.
- The court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of remaining state-law claims after the court declined supplemental jurisdiction.

## Legal Principles

- Copyright protection requires independent creation plus a minimal degree of creativity; effort and expense alone do not establish protectable expression.
- Copyright protects original expression embodied in a representation (e.g., creative choices in composition, lighting, angle, or styling), not the depicted product or design itself.
- A work that functions as a purely accurate, neutral, technical reproduction—without non-trivial expressive variation—may fall outside copyright protection even if it required substantial skill to produce.
- Digital models can be copyrightable when they reflect creative, expressive choices; the absence of such choices in an intentionally faithful replication defeats originality.

## Conclusion

Because Meshwerks’ wire-frame models were designed to be exact, unembellished digital replicas of Toyota’s vehicle designs and did not reflect independent expressive choices, they lacked the originality required for copyright protection, and summary judgment for defendants was affirmed.


Meshwerks, Inc. v. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc., 528 F.3d 1258 (10th Cir. 2008)