If you are a Homeowner wanting to find the right Builder to build your dream home, where do you start? Some Homeowners have a pre-existing layout of how they want their home to be built and want to shop around from Builder to Builder to get the best value for money. So, what do you do? You have one Builder design your Building Plan, just as you imagined. You then decide to take that Building Plan and show it to another Builder to see if your able to get a better price. Surely there is no harm in that….
When a Builder drafts Building Plans, each Builder has an exclusive legal copyright. The general principal is copyright works are owned by its Creator. So, when another Builder drafts a Building Plan based upon a previous Building Plan, you may infringe on the Copyright Act 1969. The Building Plans cannot be identical and should not even merely resemble each other. Under Section 115 of the same Act, the original Builder has a right to seek an injunction and damages in the Supreme Court if the copyright is infringed.
If you need advice about whether you could be in breach of the Act, we can discuss your options with you at Adams & Partners Lawyers.
Written by Daniela Ceccattini.
