Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

A Half-Built House: The Substantial Similarity Analysis Split In Architectural Copyright Infringement Cases, Madison V. Smiley

Brooklyn Law Review

The path to extending copyright protection to architectural works in the United States has not come without its challenges, especially as the federal courts continue to muddle through complicated and varying case law to determine whether architectural works infringement has occurred in a given dispute. Applying a uniform approach to analyze substantial similarity in a way that effectively protects architectural works across the federal circuits is necessary to fulfill the legislative intent and the constitutional intent of copyright protection. Likewise, a uniform approach will clarify the level of copyright protection that architectural works are permitted to receive in the United …