10-2144 Ho v. Taflove

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Intellectual Property
Copyright; mathematical equations

Mathematical equations cannot be copyrighted.

“On appeal, Professor Ho and Ms. Huang maintain that there are numerous ways to express the Model and therefore that, as a consequence, the merger doctrine does not apply. The plaintiffs, however, failed to support sufficiently this argument before the district court in their summary judgment filings. In their summary judgment papers, the plaintiffs offered no evidence of how the Model could be expressed through other equations or figures. Equations and figures are common components of mathematical science used to depict ideas. Although equations can be rearranged through the laws of mathematics, the substance of the equation nevertheless remains the same. Without any evidence that the Model could be expressed by equations and figures other than those used by the plaintiffs, we conclude that these equations and figures are ‘required by’ the Model, see Wildlife Express Corp., 18 F.3d at 508 (emphasis in original), and as such, are not subject to copyright.”

Affirmed.

10-2144 Ho v. Taflove

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Bucklo, J., Ripple, J.

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