The use of floor plans has long been a standard practice in the real estate industry to market homes for sale. However, a pair of cases filed in federal court in Missouri raised a surprising question: do floor plans infringe on the copyright for an architectural work?
The plaintiffs in both cases, Designworks Homes, Inc. v. Columbia House of Brokers Realty, Inc., et al. and Designworks Homes, Inc. v. Horak, et al., are an architect and his company who design and build homes in Missouri. The owners of two of those homes later hired real estate brokers to sell their homes. In one instance, the broker hired a third party to create a computerized floor plan. In the other, the broker simply measured and created a floor plan by hand. These floor plans were included in the brokers’ marketing and sales materials. Read more