Which architectural works can be protected by copyright
Article 3, paragraph 4, of my country's Copyright Law clearly distinguishes architectural works from fine arts Works are also included in the scope of protection. At the same time, paragraph 7 of this article stipulates that graphic works and model works such as engineering design drawings, product design drawings, maps, schematic diagrams, etc. are protected by copyright law. That is, buildings, design drawings, and architectural models can all be protected by copyright in my country.
But not all architectural works can be protected by copyright law. Because "works" stipulated in the Copyright Law refer to intellectual creations in the fields of literature, art, and science that are original and can be reproduced in some tangible form. The Implementing Regulations of the Copyright Law stipulate that "architectural works" refer to works of aesthetic significance expressed in the form of buildings or structures. That is, works protected by copyright law must be original and reproducible, and must have aesthetic significance. That is to say, architectural design as the object of copyright law should meet at least the following three conditions:
1. Originality. Originality means that the work is independently conceived by the author (which may be a natural person or a legal person or other organization), and the content or form of expression of the work is completely different or basically different from works that have been published by others.
However, architectural works are different from literary and artistic creations such as novels, poems, paintings, etc., because they must functionally meet the actual needs of people's production and life, and are subject to technology, It is restricted by planning, surrounding environment, geological structure and other conditions, so its creative requirements should be lower. As an architectural work, its originality should be more reflected in the fact that it is created independently (of course this does not exclude the design The designer's reference to existing buildings during the design process), when the independent creation has no contact with existing works and is substantially similar to the existing works, it should be deemed to be original.
2. Reproducibility. Reproducibility means that copyright only protects the expression of the author's ideas rather than the ideas themselves. The object of copyright protection is an intellectual product, which is non-material and must be expressed in a certain objective form (such as books, paintings, pictures, etc.). The essence of architectural design is also a combination and arrangement of design conditions, design elements and other information. These combinations and arrangements must be made through design drawings, architectural models or the building itself.They are expressed as carriers, and these carriers can be copied. Design ideas that are only in the mind of a designer and have not been expressed in any way cannot be copied. In this way, even the best design concepts cannot be protected by copyright. object.
3. It has aesthetic significance. The Implementing Regulations of my country’s Copyright Law define architectural works as works of aesthetic significance expressed in the form of buildings or structures. This requires that the architectural work be of artistic beauty. Those houses that can only meet people's production and living needs and only have doors, windows, walls and roofs without any artistic beauty cannot be called architectural works and are not protected by copyright law.
