“..The Ordinary Observer Test: The court first compares the allegedly infringing device with design patent drawings under the ordinary observer test to determine whether the allegedly infringing design is substantially the same as the patent design.” (Patent, Copyright and Trademark. Richard Stim. Page 74)
Seeing how I didn’t get the right answers I was looking for, and I wasn’t able to personally speak with a patent lawyer, no precedents were discussed. I decided to start looking online for previous cases dealing with designs in the architecture world. I came across a recent case (http://senlawoffice.com/exclusiverights/category/architectural-design/) where the plaintiff developer paid an architectural firm over $2.7 million for its services. After things went sour, the developer claimed the firm was late in submitting designs. The architectural firm refused to provide the developer access to the designs being they claimed that it was owed another $491,000 for the other services. “..infringement action is a lawsuit alleging that one or more parties have, without permission, made, used, or sold an invention protected under a patent owned by the party bringing the lawsuit.” (Patent, Copyright and Trademark. Richard Stim. Page 74 )After reading this, it really put into perspective how much money a company can lose for not paying for a design, or even for just being late on submittals. I’m also assuming that this was one of the smaller cases, I don’t even want to think about the charges of bigger and more serious cases.
“Copyright protection extends to any original work regardless of who reated it and permission is required for reproduction, display, or distribution of the work.” (Patent, Copyright and Trademark. Richard Stim. Page 282)
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