Copyright registration
Question: Does an architect need to register his or her instrument of service with the U.S Copyright office even after using all relevant AIA agreement forms on a project.
-
Mostly no, you don't need to register it (but filing with the copyright office is not the worst idea anyway).
A 1990 federal law automatically protects works of architecture, so an architect needn't specifically file the work with the copyright office.
But, filing with the copyright office does give the architect the option to sue for more types of damages if someone rips off her work.
What's protected? The law protects building compositions (The Guggenheim Museum concepts in New York or Bilbao) but doesn't protect common ideas (the idea of log cabin or glass skyscraper) or common building parts (the everyday window or the front stoop)--Michael Ermann, Amber Book creator
-
I don't see anything in any of the ARE 5.0 references stating that the architect should register their copyright - Law for Architects has an entire chapter on copyrights and doesn't mention it. That said, it's probably not a bad idea!
In practice, it seems that most architects register their copyrights only if they believe they have a copyright infringement claim. It's not the same situation as patents, where there's a race to get down to the patent office to register an invention. If architect A designs a building that was built in 2010 and Architect B allegedly copies it in 2015, it's pretty clear which came first for the purposes of the copyright infringement case.
Chris Hopstock RA
Black Spectacles
ARE Community
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
3 comments