Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California
Drawing Design Ownership
I hired a fire protection company to draw a plan for an underground fire line at a commercial property for a future office building. I signed a time and material contract for this drawing which was to be approved
by the local fire department. When I received the approved
drawing, it had a paragraph stating that ''This drawing and the information and design application herein contained'' is
the property of the fire sprinkler company and that the drawing is ''loaned upon express conditions that the same be returned to'' the fire protection company ''upon request;
all information herein contained shall be treated as a secret, and confidential; no reproduction of this drawing or any part thereof shall be made without written consent''.
This drawing is specific to my property and its design layout would not work to use at anywhere else. I intend to get bids from several other fire protection companies. I will need to make additional copies of this drawing and the company I choose to do the work will need the rights to use it.
Since I am paying this company to design a plan for me,
shouldn't I be the owner of the drawing. It was not written in the contract that the fire protection company would retain ownership of the drawing.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Drawing Design Ownership
In terms of copyright law, the "default" is that the author retains copyright ownership unless there is a writing to contrary. So, if the contract does not specify who owns the drawing, it probably belongs to the company that created it.
Without reviewing your particular contract and the way it is worded, it is difficult to say whether the fire protection company is within its rights to restrict your use of the work you paid for. Ordinarily, lawyers who deal in intellectual property will put a "work-for-hire" statement in contracts such as yours, or language that gives you the absolute right to use the work for the purposes you need.
In any case, the company should be willing to give you written permission to copy the drawing and distribute it for bidding purposes (and at no additional charge to you). Of course, their reason for NOT doing so would be so they get the job without any competing bids.
Re: Drawing Design Ownership
I'm not sure about fire protection design work, but it has come to my attention that architects retain copyright over their plans. The concern is liability if another builder does the work and either makes modifications or doesn't follow the plan properly and something then goes wrong.
As to whether they have the right to do this or not, the first place I would look is the contract itself; it may say that plans remain the property of the firm that produced them.
Such a fine-print reservation of rights might be assailable in court -- I don't know -- but if it is a large firm there's a good chance the provision has weathered previous challenges.