[inetsee]

It's a sequence of coordinates for the vertices of the shape. Is that different from a sequence of words in a story or a book.

[Someone]

Legally, it can be different. For example, a typeface is a sequence of coordinates for the vertices of the shape, but (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...):

“Typefaces cannot be protected by copyright in the United States (Code of Federal Regulations, Ch 37, Sec. 202.1(e); Eltra Corp. v. Ringer), but fonts can be protected by design patent and may be protected by copyright.”

As I understand things, if the USA legal system were to choose to apply the same rules to these tiles, their exact shape would be copyrightable, but variations on it wouldn’t, even if the variations, for all intents and purposes, are identical to the original.

[hgsgm]

There not true. Penrose tilings as a whole are generated randomly, with overall features determined only by the two simple tile shapes.

[starkparker]

cf. the threshold of originality[1]; the answer to that question is "it depends on the shape, legal precedent, and the laws where you live"

1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Threshold_of_orig...