Werner Sabo is a partner at the construction law firm of Sabo & Zahn in Chicago. He is also a licensed architect, having practiced architecture for a number of years prior to establishing his law practice in 1981. He is a member of the AIA and CSI, has been an officer and director of the Chicago Chapter AIA, President of the Chicago Chapter, Construction Specifications Institute, and writes a monthly construction law column for The Construction Specifier. He is also a founding member of the Society of Illinois Construction Attorneys. In 1997, the AIA elected him to the College of Fellows. His book, Legal Guide to AIA Documents, published by Aspen Publishing, is in its fourth edition. Mr. Sabo is also a construction arbitrator and mediator for the American Arbitration Association and is admitted to the federal trial bar.
James K. Zahn is a licensed architect and attorney in the State of Illinois. He is a partner in the law firm of Sabo & Zahn, concentrating in construction law and representing owners, contractors, architects, developers, engineers and other parties in the construction process. He received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Illinois and his JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Mr. Zahn is a member of the American, Illinois and Chicago bar associations, American Institute of Architects, Association of Licensed Architects, Construction Specifications Institute and has NCARB Certification. He was a past president of the Illinois Council of the American Institute of Architects and is a Fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Licensed Architects. He is currently a resource member of the AIA National Documents Committee.
Shawn E. Goodman is a partner with Sabo & Zahn. He concentrates in litigation of all types. A graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, he was admitted to the bar 1993. Since that time, he has practiced before local and outlying circuit courts, U.S. District Court, and various administrative tribunals. He has acted on behalf of a variety of clients including small to mid-sized businesses and individuals. He has handled all facets of litigation from pleading to motion practice to discovery to trial. The cases with which he has been involved are varied and wide-ranging and include personal injury, breach of contract, criminal defense, commercial disputes, and consumer fraud. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants and has practiced before juries as well as judges. Mr. Goodman has also worked on appeals and has assisted in the drafting of appellate briefs.
Architects: How to apply for Copyright Registration
The following article is taken from the Sabo & Zahn e-newsletter of April, 2005. It gives an overview of how design professionals can register their copyrights. Although an author has a copyright in a work from the moment of creation, registration is a prerequisite for filing an infringement action and for obtaining certain other relief, such as statutory damages. Read the article ...
Under United States copyright law, design professionals have a copyright in anything that they author from the moment of creation. The creation must be original, and not simply a copy of someone else’s work, and it must be embodied in a tangible means of expression, such as a drawing or sketch. This copyright protection enables the author to prevent anyone from making unauthorized copies of the sketch, drawing or other work, and to ask a court to award damages in case of an infringement. This can be a powerful tool to help an architect or engineer to collect a fee. To obtain maximum protection (and before an infringement suit can be filed), however, the author (for our purposes, the architect) must register that copyright with the United States Copyright Office. This procedure is quite simple and anyone can do it. The Copyright Office has an excellent website: http://www.copyright.gov. Simply click on the link for "Visual Arts" under "How to Register a Work." There, you will find step-by-step instructions for obtaining the proper VA form and the deposit requirements. This VA form should be downloaded in pdf format. Select the form that includes instructions. Read the instructions that come with the VA form carefully. Note that, generally, architectural drawings are not "published" for copyright purposes. Also, employees of an architectural firm create the works as a "work for hire" on behalf of the firm, with the firm being considered the copyright owner. Consultation with an attorney familiar with intellectual property law might be useful the first time filling out this form. Architects should generally register two copyrights for each project: one as "technical drawings", and the second as an "architectural work," The VA form has a checkbox on the first page for these choices. The forms are otherwise identical. Doing this protects the architect from not only duplication of the physical plans and details, but also protects against someone simply measuring the building and creating a copy based on those measurements. An important consideration is to have proper language covering copyright ownership in your contract with the owner. Modern AIA language offers the best protection for architects. Some owners may want to own the copyright. This is generally a bad idea for the design professional, who may then be barred from using those details, plans and elevations on future projects. A compromise can usually be made that gives the owner an appropriate license to use the architect’s copyrighted work.
Comments