Intellectual Property

[ali_cgi]

Has anybody had a client requesting you have Intellectual Property / indemnity insurance

Basically the client has a building in mind, they would like us to make something similar 'not identical' to be used in a car advert,

They have requested that we have this insurance in order to be awarded the job, if not we aren't aloud to do the job,


I have never come across this before so was wondering if anyone has that could give me some advice, we are in the UK and the job is in the USA

Cheers,

Alistair

[joconnell]

Sounds like the clients want to infer a place as strongly as possible but want to shield themselves from being sued by the real building that they're trying to infer. The question would be who would decide how close you can come to the real building - if the client pushes you by a raft of revisions to make a building that's identical to the real one then it's their fault. If you've got control over how close it is and can stop when YOU think the line has been reached will the client be okay with not being able to go further? I've known two places that did jobs that were incredibly similar to other works. One place I used to work for who's a post production company were forced to rip off another motion piece by the agency that commissioned it, they wouldn't accept something slightly different and the post company ended up in a court case as a result.

The other thing that's semi relevant is we did a film job where there was a mars rover. It was covered in logos and flags of various countries and companies. There was a huge amount of time waiting for the final logos to arrive for the texture as there was a legal search done to make sure that none of the logos closely matched anything in real life, again in case someone sued for copyright.

I'd almost get an architect to have a look at the spirit / feel of the building and make some plans that are in the same vain, sounds like the client wants the real building though and doesn't want to deal with any fallout from it.

[glorybound]

I had someone call wanting the ability to use several of my renderings, on my website, for a development they wanted to market. Basically, they didn't want to pay me to illustrate anything; they just wanted to pay me a couple bucks to take someone else's design. I said no! It was a very shady request, so I didn't even consider it. Lately, I have been having people use me to build their design, so they can bypass the architect. They would send me part and pieces of other house, to assembled into their design.

[ali_cgi]

Thanks guys its a tricky one, I just don't understand why they would want us to take out the insurance,
I was under the impression that the agency requesting the work would be liable if anyone tried to sue,
But I guess it is us that would be acting as a digital architect,
Makes me wonder wether we should already have this kind of insurance incase anything ever went wrong with other jobs also.

[Morbid Angel]

Its a hierarchy, when shit hits the fan they are going to sue each other sequentially: the original ip owner sues the client who made the request to the ad agency, the client sues the ad agency, the ad agency sues the vendor. I'd really pass this one. But that's just me

[Deflaminis]

I've had this come up once or twice in the past, and from what I've found (and I am not a lawyer)

17 U.S.C § 120 . Scope of exclusive rights in architectural works:

(a) Pictorial Representations Permitted.—The copyright in an architectural work that has been constructed does not include the right to prevent the making, distributing, or public display of pictures, paintings, photographs, or other pictorial representations of the work, if the building in which the work is embodied is located in or ordinarily visible from a public place.

But, I guess it gets cloudy if the building is part of a trademark or some such thing. An IP lawyer is pretty much a necessity here to sort it out.

[ali_cgi]

The sueing culture of the states! Its much easier over here in Europe, would you guys be saying its a must have when doing work in the US then?
I'm no law pro, so yes imagine its better to get a solicitors advice and maybe an architect
Cheers Again Guys