Upgrade MacbookPro (15' mid 2010), beyond 8G RAM
You're not alone in your confusion, and there's four good reasons for it:


Some MacBooks can only use Apple's "official" maximum RAM
Other MacBooks can actually use more (usually twice as much)
Newer MacBooks have their RAM soldered in and cannot be upgraded after being purchased
The answer differs depending on the model of mid-2010 MacBook Pro!


You were probably aware of the first three reasons, but the last one often catches people out. To clarify this:


13" mid-2010 MacBook Pro models can actually use 16GB RAM
15" mid-2010 MacBook Pro models cannot use 16GB RAM
17" mid-2010 MacBook Pro models cannot use 16GB RAM


Unfortunately, this means for you the answer is no.