Discussion:
What is the name of your state? Wisconsin
I spent countless hours designing the floor plan for our house and paid the fees to have the blueprints made. Our contractor asked if he could build our plan for another couple and we said no. He's building a house down the street from us and after noticing the exterior was like ours we took a private tour. It WAS our plan with minor modifications, i.e. window size, door placement, etc. Since I designed the plan and paid the blueprint fees, isn't it my "intellectual property" and don't I have the legal rights to it? Do I have any legal recourse with the contractor?
Answer:
What is the name of your state? Wisconsin
I spent countless hours designing the floor plan for our house and paid the fees to have the blueprints made. Our contractor asked if he could build our plan for another couple and we said no. He's building a house down the street from us and after noticing the exterior was like ours we took a private tour. It WAS our plan with minor modifications, i.e. window size, door placement, etc. Since I designed the plan and paid the blueprint fees, isn't it my "intellectual property" and don't I have the legal rights to it? Do I have any legal recourse with the contractor? Did you apply for a copyright? Can you prove that you drew up the plans and have receipts? Have you gone to the planning department and see what is on file there?
Answer:
Do I have any legal recourse with the contractor? Not unless your plans are copyrighted.
Answer:
What is the name of your state? Wisconsin
I spent countless hours designing the floor plan for our house and paid the fees to have the blueprints made. Our contractor asked if he could build our plan for another couple and we said no. He's building a house down the street from us and after noticing the exterior was like ours we took a private tour. It WAS our plan with minor modifications, i.e. window size, door placement, etc. Since I designed the plan and paid the blueprint fees, isn't it my "intellectual property" and don't I have the legal rights to it? Do I have any legal recourse with the contractor? Blueprints and other architectural designs are copyrightable, and yes, if you drew up these designs, they are your intellectual property. However, the problem you will have is enforcement -- unless you can prove up damages, any case for infringement you bring against the contractor will almost certainly cost more (a lot more) than you could hope to recover if you won a lawsuit.
Go ahead and talk with a local attorney, but unless you were planning on selling these blueprints, or had some other "market" for the plans such that you can show actual harm and therefore prove damages, you are going to have to pay the attorney up front, and it is unlikely you will recover enough to even cover your legal fees.
Answer:
Blueprints and other architectural designs are copyrightable, and yes, if you drew up these designs, they are your intellectual property. However, the problem you will have is enforcement -- unless you can prove up damages, any case for infringement you bring against the contractor will almost certainly cost more (a lot more) than you could hope to recover if you won a lawsuit.
Go ahead and talk with a local attorney, but unless you were planning on selling these blueprints, or had some other "market" for the plans such that you can show actual harm and therefore prove damages, you are going to have to pay the attorney up front, and it is unlikely you will recover enough to even cover your legal fees. Now that the builder is building a house just like ours 1/2 block away from ours, our house is no longer exclusive to us. And having him tear it down is not an option. So, we want to sell the builder the rights to my design. It seems to be a very marketable one for him.
Would this be an option? How much could we ask for these rights?
Answer:
Now that the builder is building a house just like ours 1/2 block away from ours, our house is no longer exclusive to us. That's pretty tough to value.
And having him tear it down is not an option. Agreed.
So, we want to sell the builder the rights to my design. It seems to be a very marketable one for him. You can try and see if he will buy the rights -- but I wouldn't count on it happening. He already has plans to build this new house -- why does he need your plans? Besides, if I was his attorney, I would tell him to ignore you -- you are the copyright holder, so it is your burden to prove that HE is infringing. I would tell him to stay put until you were able to prove up infringement.
However, maybe he doesn't have an attorney, or maybe his attorney isn't up on copyright law -- you never know. It can't hurt to approach him, with or without the assistance of an attorney, and perhaps threaten him with an infringement lawsuit if he doesn't buy or license your blueprints. Maybe that will be enough to get him to roll over and cough up some money.
Next time -- if there is a next time -- when you get your blueprints done, file for a copyright registration with the U.S. copyright office. It's only $30, and then if something like this happens again, you have a greater range of remedies to sue for, including statutory damages, which can make a lawsuit worthwhile even if you can't prove actual damages.
Answer:
That's pretty tough to value.

Agreed.

You can try and see if he will buy the rights -- but I wouldn't count on it happening. He already has plans to build this new house -- why does he need your plans? Besides, if I was his attorney, I would tell him to ignore you -- you are the copyright holder, so it is your burden to prove that HE is infringing. I would tell him to stay put until you were able to prove up infringement.
However, maybe he doesn't have an attorney, or maybe his attorney isn't up on copyright law -- you never know. It can't hurt to approach him, with or without the assistance of an attorney, and perhaps threaten him with an infringement lawsuit if he doesn't buy or license your blueprints. Maybe that will be enough to get him to roll over and cough up some money.
Next time -- if there is a next time -- when you get your blueprints done, file for a copyright registration with the U.S. copyright office. It's only $30, and then if something like this happens again, you have a greater range of remedies to sue for, including statutory damages, which can make a lawsuit worthwhile even if you can't prove actual damages.
We found out that our builder did not actually use our blueprints. When he had his sub draw up our blueprints he gave them copies of my sketch and he kept the original. Since he still had my original sketch, he gave that to the sub to have new blueprints drawn up. He told us that his sub, not us, probably has the proprietary rights to our plan. His sub did put their copyright on our floor plan. The president of our county's home builders association told us that the sub will put their copyright on a plan if the party who brought in the floor plan has not copyrighted it. Since they have copyrighted the blueprints, can I still copyright my sketch and/or do I have the right to insist the sub sign over their copyright to me? We are finding the construction industry is that of the Good Ole Boy mentality and everyone is covering everybody's butt. I keep running into a brick wall. Would small claims court be an option to pursue this matter? I really, really hate to sit back and watch our builder make money using my floor plan design. I appreciate all the advice.
Answer:
We found out that our builder did not actually use our blueprints. When he had his sub draw up our blueprints he gave them copies of my sketch and he kept the original. Since he still had my original sketch, he gave that to the sub to have new blueprints drawn up. He told us that his sub, not us, probably has the proprietary rights to our plan. His sub did put their copyright on our floor plan. The president of our county's home builders association told us that the sub will put their copyright on a plan if the party who brought in the floor plan has not copyrighted it. Since they have copyrighted the blueprints, can I still copyright my sketch and/or do I have the right to insist the sub sign over their copyright to me? You can copyright your sketch whether or not the sub copyrighted the actual bluerprints. You may not copyright the blueprints, because you didn't draw them yourself, and they werre not a "work for hire" -- only the creator of the blueprints may copyright them.
Also, you probably don't have any rights to insist that the sub hand over the copyrights to the blueprints. Even if you had given the sketch directly to the sub, without a written contract specifying that the sub would have to turn over any copyrights in the blueprints to you once the blueprints were created, the sub would still retain the copyrights and have no obligation to give them or sell them to you.
We are finding the construction industry is that of the Good Ole Boy mentality and everyone is covering everybody's butt. Undoubtedly true, but copyright ownership is spelled out pretty clearly in the copyright statutes, and given the facts you've presented, it doesn't reeally look like their is any way you can claim ownership of the copyright to the blueprints.
Would small claims court be an option to pursue this matter? Without some sort of provable contract or agreement that has been breached, no.
I really, really hate to sit back and watch our builder make money using my floor plan design. I appreciate all the advice. The best advice would be to forget about it, and enjoy the house you designed. If you are flush with cash, by all means go and hire a lawyer and pursue this until you feel vindicated, but in all liklihood, you don't have a claim. Unless you can PROVE that you had an agreement that your design would only be used by you, and therefore the builder and/or architect breached that contract, or you can PROVE that the builder had the blueprints drawn up from your desings without authorization, and therefore copyright infringement is occuring, there really isn't anything for you to pursue in the first place.