Quebec Superior Court Considers Idea/Expression Dichotomy and Rejects Copyright Infringement of Software Source Code

In Biocad Médical Inc c Panthera Dentaire Inc, 2015 QCCS 6555 (Google English translation), the Québec Superior Court (the Court) dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims for copyright infringement of software for the design of dental implants.  The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants reproduced a substantial part of the software’s source code, contrary to the Copyright Act (Act), and violated non-compete and non-solicitation clauses. The plaintiffs based their claim in part on reverse engineering evidence, thus comparing the functionality of their software and the defendants’ software.

The Court held that the defendants had not infringed copyright, but had violated certain non-compete and non-solicitation clauses. 

Regarding copyright, the Court discussed the definition of a computer program and what constitutes a “substantial part” of such work, noting that the program’s source code is the expression of an idea worthy of copyright protection.  The Court also addressed the dichotomy between an idea and its expression, noting that when an idea cannot be easily separated from its expression (i.e. merger), enforcing copyright protection may result in an exclusive monopoly right over the idea.  In this case, the Court found that many of the source code segments in issue – which formed a small part of the total code segments in the works – were common expressions under merger or available in the public domain and thus, were not protected under the Act.