Ownership when you worked for the architect
Who owns MEP drawings under a consultant agreement?
Updated
Most MEP design is done as the architect's consultant, not for the building owner directly. The statutes say who owns the drawings first; the consultant agreement says what licence passes up the chain.
Who owns the drawings first
Under US law copyright vests initially in the author, and for work an employee prepares within the scope of employment the employer is treated as the author. In the UK the employer is the first owner of copyright in work an employee makes in the course of employment, subject to any agreement to the contrary.
Source: Who owns an MEP consultant's drawings and calculations
How it can move
In both countries a transfer needs writing: a US transfer is not valid unless it is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights, and a UK assignment is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor. A consultant agreement that assigns copyright to the client is the document to look for first.
What the standard consultant forms say
- AIA C402-2018
- AIA's instructions say the consultant and the architect are deemed the authors and owners of their respective Instruments of Service and retain all common law and statutory rights, including copyright; through the flow down the owner receives a nonexclusive license to use the consultant's Instruments of Service for constructing, using, maintaining, altering and adding to the project.
- ACE Professional Services Agreement 2017
- Clause 9.1 leaves the consultant's intellectual property rights vested in the consultant, and the client has a licence to use the drawings, documents and information issued to it for any purpose relating to completion of the project.
- ACE Short Form 2015
- Material the consultant provides remains vested in the consultant, and the client has a licence to copy and use it for the purposes for which it was provided.
- ACE collateral warranty
- The consultant's intellectual property rights remain vested in the consultant, and the beneficiary has a licence to use the drawings and documents issued under the appointment for completion of the works and the operation of the project.
Source: Who owns an MEP consultant's drawings and calculations
So under these forms the MEP firm keeps the copyright and the client or owner takes a licence for the project. AIA C401-2017's own copyright article is not on our table: the instructions page we read does not address it, so check the article in the agreement you signed.
How long the right lasts
A UK drawing stays in copyright until 70 years after the end of the year its author dies. In the US a work made for hire lasts 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever ends first, so a firm's old drawings rarely fall out of copyright before they lose their value.
Source: 17 U.S.C. 302