Joe Cooch with Lee/Shoemaker and Sidney Griffin, AIA Central Virginia President

On the evening of January 25th, in the conference room of VMDO Architects, Joe Cooch with Lee/Shoemaker treated AIA Central Virginia members to his intellectual insight in the world of copyright law as it pertains to our design work. In his presentation, Joe led us through the legal framework for copyright and trade secrets protection.

Starting with copyright, we learned the definitions of what is copyrightable when it comes to architectural design (an original composition of typical features created independently with “some minimal degree of creativity”), and what doesn’t. The independent creation is why works created with AI are not copyrightable because the fundamental operation of AI pull together works from other authors. AI got more scrutiny when Lee dug into the licensing agreements associated with the use of AI and the products produced. If you are using AI as part of your design process, be sure to review the terms & conditions to make sure you aren’t signing away copyrights to your intellectual property by using these tools!

The trade secrets part of the presentation highlighted our processes including BIM, CAD, internal processes, software customizations, and business strategies. Joe cautioned for us to have protections in place in the form of contract language, release agreements for file distribution, and a good legal team to make sure your trade secrets stay secret.

Joe’s presentation was highly informative and entertaining, even weaving in a reference to the Wu-Tang clan for their masterful understanding of how copyrights work in the music industry. Thank you, Joe Cooch and Lee/Shoemaker, for presenting and sponsoring this event, and thanks to VMDO Architects for offering their space!