Did you know our design and drawings (house plans) are protected by copyright? Even after you pay in full, we still own the copyright, but you are licensed to use the house plans on the site they have been designed for.

Even if you have had plans drawn up with another building designer or architect, we cannot copy your plans unless you have written permission from your previous designer stating they ‘release all copyright’ on those plans. They won’t always release copyright, so we need to start from scratch and develop a new house plan for you. Plus, you will often only be allowed to utilise those plans for one project after paying a license cost.

What if you find the perfect plan online? Just because it is publicly available does not mean you can copy it. Even if you change more than 50% of the plan, it does not mean you void copyright laws. There is no set percentage of changes. If the plan is considerably recognisable as being a part of the existing design, you are still violating copyright. Without permission, if you copy or recreate a significant portion of another person’s work, you probably violate any copyright in that work.

HOW DO YOU AVOID VIOLATING COPYRIGHT?

Honesty is always the best policy when dealing with someone else’s intellectual property, especially copyright. All you need to do is ask if you can use or modify someone else’s design. Even though you might have to pay a license fee, this is undoubtedly better than the sum you would have to pay in potential legal expenses if someone finds out about your copyright violation.

Keep in mind that information about your construction process will be made available to the public and will be simple for anybody to obtain. You can often find this information on local council websites.

Copyright is tricky, and most people are entirely oblivious to the regulations. Even if you, as the property owner, draw up a sketch for a designer to comply with and enhance, the copyright still belongs to the designer who drew it, even if it is from someone else’s ideas.

For more information about this please visit https://www.copyright.org.au/

Please don’t hesitate to call us for further clarification.