{"id":793,"date":"2012-08-29T13:45:07","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T19:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=793"},"modified":"2012-08-29T13:45:07","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T19:45:07","slug":"second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David M. Kohane and Adam J. Sklar, August 22, 2012<\/p>\n<p>Until 1990, federal law extended copyright protection to original architectural drawings, but generally did not extend such protection to actual buildings, even buildings constructed from protected drawings.\u00a0 The drawings were protected from copying as \u201cpictorial\u201d or \u201cgraphic\u201d works, just like any sketch or painting.\u00a0 The drawings only had to have a minimal degree of originality to enjoy protection.<\/p>\n<p>Except for purely ornamental features separable from the structure, buildings did not enjoy the same protection.\u00a0\u00a0 Buildings were considered functional works excluded from protection under the Copyright Act.\u00a0 In 1990, Congress passed the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990 \u201cAWCPA\u201d, amending the Copyright Act to fill that gap.\u00a0 The AWCPA explicitly extended copyright protection to \u201carchitectural works,\u201d so as to include completed buildings themselves registered with the Copyright Office.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals clarified that the pre-existing protection of architectural drawings as \u201cpictorial\u201d works survived enactment of AWCPA. \u00a0In Scholz Design, Inc. v. Sard Custom Homes, LLC, Docket No. 11-3298 2d Cir. August 15, 2012, the court considered a design firm\u2019s claim for infringement of front elevation drawings showing the appearance of the front of three houses, surrounded by lawn, bushes and trees.\u00a0 There was no dispute the defendants had published exact copies of the drawings.\u00a0 The lower court had held, however, that these drawings were not protected under the Copyright Act, as amended by AWCPA.\u00a0 The court interpreted previous decisions as holding that architectural drawings only could be protected if they contained sufficient detail from which a building could be constructed.\u00a0 That interpretation sought to reconcile the extension of copyright protection to architectural works, through AWCPA, with the long-established principle that copyright law does not protect ideas, only the particular expression of ideas.<\/p>\n<p>The Second Circuit disagreed.\u00a0 The court held that regardless of whether the drawings were protectable as \u201carchitectural works\u201d under AWCPA, they remained protectable as \u201cpictorial\u201d works under pre-existing law.<\/p>\n<p>Scholz Design confirmed that AWCPA\u2019s extension of copyright protection to buildings did not result in a contraction of protection for the underlying drawings.\u00a0 Thus, according to the Second Circuit, the unauthorized publication or reproduction of original architectural drawings, even where lacking in detail needed for actual construction, has been and remains unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lexology.com\/library\/detail.aspx?g=7a79f641-6231-46e0-b764-dddf105bce77&amp;utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&amp;utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+Federal+section&amp;utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&amp;utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2012-08-29&amp;utm_term=\">Second Circuit clarifies copyright protection for architectural works and drawings &#8211; Lexology<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David M. Kohane and Adam J. Sklar, August 22, 2012 Until 1990, federal law extended copyright protection to original architectural drawings, but generally did not extend such protection to actual buildings, even buildings constructed from protected drawings.\u00a0 The drawings were protected from copying as \u201cpictorial\u201d or \u201cgraphic\u201d works, just like any sketch or painting.\u00a0 The&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,172],"tags":[215,12,216],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-2","category-construction-law-2","tag-architecture","tag-construction","tag-copyright-protection","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David M. Kohane and Adam J. Sklar, August 22, 2012 Until 1990, federal law extended copyright protection to original architectural drawings, but generally did not extend such protection to actual buildings, even buildings constructed from protected drawings.\u00a0 The drawings were protected from copying as \u201cpictorial\u201d or \u201cgraphic\u201d works, just like any sketch or painting.\u00a0 The&hellip; Continue reading Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-29T19:45:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7\"},\"headline\":\"Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-29T19:45:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/\"},\"wordCount\":396,\"commentCount\":11,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Architecture\",\"construction\",\"Copyright Protection\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Construction\",\"Construction Law\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/\",\"name\":\"Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings - Advise &amp; 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Kohane and Adam J. Sklar, August 22, 2012 Until 1990, federal law extended copyright protection to original architectural drawings, but generally did not extend such protection to actual buildings, even buildings constructed from protected drawings.\u00a0 The drawings were protected from copying as \u201cpictorial\u201d or \u201cgraphic\u201d works, just like any sketch or painting.\u00a0 The&hellip; Continue reading Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/","og_site_name":"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/","article_published_time":"2012-08-29T19:45:07+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@adviseconsult","twitter_site":"@adviseconsult","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7"},"headline":"Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings","datePublished":"2012-08-29T19:45:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/"},"wordCount":396,"commentCount":11,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Architecture","construction","Copyright Protection"],"articleSection":["Construction","Construction Law"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/second-circuit-clarifies-copyright-protection-for-architectural-works-and-drawings\/","name":"Second Circuit Clarifies Copyright Protection for Architectural Works and Drawings - Advise &amp; 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