Copyright for kitchen layout?

13 years ago

I've noticed that some plans have Copyright stamped across it. If I post my plan done by Rutt for the Regency line, is there anything I need to do to "protect" the designer? I take it I own the plan since we're buying the cabinets but wasn't sure what was the proper etiquette.

Thanks

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Comments (4)

User
13 years ago
All designs are the intellectual property of the designer. When you pay a designer for plans, you are purchasing the right to use those plans, not the plans themselves. Those always belong to the designer.

First of all, if you want to post the plans here, make sure the designer is OK with publishing them. Most are. Some aren't. It's not necessary to notate that they are copyrighted. All designs are copyrighted as original works.
angela12345
13 years ago
Plus kitchen layouts are specific to the room/house they are going in. It is very hard for a different person to use the same kitchen layout as another person because the rooms will be totally different. It's not like it is new construction where an entire home is going on a vacant lot. I always thought the copyrights were to keep the homeowner (you) from taking the kitchen design work from one designer to another designer, using the 1st designer's layout but purchasing cabinets from the 2nd designer. Hollysprings is right. The design belongs to the designer and you are paying for the right to use the plans, not buying the rights to own the plans. Although, there are situations where you would own the plans. I'm not 100% sure of the terminology, I think you would hire the designer or the architect under a work-for-hire contract. Whatever it's called, that's what we did when we built our home. We have the right to sell the plans if we chose and the architect does not have the right to use the plans or any portion of the plans for another project because he does not own the plans.
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angela12345
13 years ago
Adding to clarify: when we submitted our plans to the architect, they were totally designed by us. We submitted plan version 44 to him. He was maybe more willing for our arrangement because he was not actually the designer of the plans, as we obviously were. We hired him to take our plans and convert them into construction drawings.
CT_Newbie
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you very much! I hadn't realized the ownership issue or how the copyright works. I did ask for an electronic version so I could share it and she seemed fine with that. That's a good point too of how they fit a specific space.