A question often raised is, “How do we protect our designs?” How can we deter a client from overextending their license to our ideas and using our designs beyond their initially intended or contractually bound uses? As creatives, how do we protect our creativity?
This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, Copyright Protection for Architects with Abe Cohn of Howard M. Cohn & Associates.
Abe’s Origin Story
Abe has always been interested in entrepreneurship, and finds it fascinating to deal with so many people in so many different areas who have such different and novel ideas. He started a tech company a few years ago and after dealing with a ton of intellectual property law there, it made sense for him to move over to the legal sides of things.
What’s the difference between copyright, trademarks and patents?
Intellectual property is a broad category that includes the intangibles involved in a new creation. Depending on what that is, you can turn to a specific piece of that property.
If you were to walk into a shoe store and saw a swoosh; you would immediately recognize that product as a part of the Nike corporation. In that case, the swoosh is a trademark: a mark that serves as an identifier for a good. There’s also a servicemark, which is attached to a service being provided. Legally, the process is exactly the same.
Next, you walk into a car shop and saw a gorgeous engine inside a Lamborghini. That engine is a creation that someone has invested a lot of time, money and talents into making. How do we protect that person’s rights? Patents protect novel processes, things that people are building and the ideas behind them.
In any Harry Potter book, JK Rowling turned to copyrights to protect her creative manifestations. Copyrights protects her literary work and ensures that others can’t steal, use or copy her brilliant ideas.
How are architects protected by copyright law?
Architects have claims to different copyrights, like the drawings and designs of the building. About 25 years ago, Congress passed the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act to expand the scope of what it is that architects can actually copy, which states,
“An original design of a building created in any tangible medium of expression, including a constructed building or architectural plans, models, or drawings…Protection extends to the overall form as well as the arrangement and composition of spaces and elements in the design but does not include individual standard features.”
Now not only are the plans and drawings covered, but the building itself can be copyrighted. You can’t get a copyright on the door itself, but as it relates to some other features because your creative work is novel in that each composite features interacts with the adjacent features.
What if you’re designing something that isn’t novel, like a standard Colonial house?
Works that are copyrightable have to be in concrete form and have to be substantially unique enough. Part of the design could be copyrightable, while others are not because they aren’t unique.
Why do you need a copyright?
The moment you put your unique enterprise down, there’s a preliminary set of rights. You can’t stop someone from using it until you register with the copyright office. The legal distinction of registering your copyright is having it on paper is a notice...