In a decision delivered on April 21, 2016, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench ruled that copyright can subsist in seismic data.  While facts and ideas are not protected by copyright, the Court held that “the raw or field seismic data is an original literary compilation work and the processed data is both an original literary compilation work and an artistic compilation work in the scientific domain. As such, they are protected under s 3 of the Copyright Act.”