After 80 to 100 hours of effort per vehicle, Meshwerks produced two-dimensional, wire-frame depictions that appeared three-dimensional on screen. The idea was to create a product that resembled each car or truck model as closely as possible for use on the Toyota Web site and in other media.

The resulting unadorned images, which had no color, shading nor other details, were accurate. So accurate that a federal court has ruled the depictions have no right to copyright protection.

In an opinion handed down Tuesday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the models owe their designs to Toyota - not to the Meshwerks personnel who labored to produce the digital images but added nothing original to them.

"We think Meshwerks' models are not so much independent creations as [very good] copies of Toyota's vehicles," a three-judge panel of the Denver-based court said.

The decision was a blow to Kevin Scheidle, one of the founders of Meshwerks, a 5-year-old company based in the Washington County community of Ivins.

"A 3-year-old kid can take a photo, and it can be protected by a copyright," Scheidle said. "There's a lot more effort and time going into creating our images."

According to court records, Meshwerks was hired to assist with the digitization and modeling for Toyota's model-year 2004 campaign.

The company covered each vehicle with a grid of tape, took measurements at each intersection point and then used the figures to generate a digital image resembling a wire-frame model. Features such as wheels, headlights, door handles and the Toyota emblem had to be re-created by hand.

These products went to another company that added color, texture, lighting and animation. The models could rotate on screen and, with a few clicks of the computer mouse, an advertiser could change the color of the car and its surroundings.

Meshwerks insisted that it contracted for only a single use of its wire-frame models and filed suit claiming copyright infringement when Toyota and its advertising companies reused and redistributed the creations.

In September 2006, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in Salt Lake City ruled the models did not meet the originality requirement of copyright law. Meshwerks appealed, leading to the 10th Circuit decision upholding Campbell.

Despite its decision that these particular Meshwerks creations could not be copyrighted, the court noted the future looks bright for digital modeling.

"We do not doubt for an instant that the digital medium before us, like photography before it, can be employed to create vivid new expressions fully protectable in copyright," the opinion says.

pmanson@sltrib.com