922 Technical and Scientific Drawings
Technical and scientific drawings include mechanical drawings, engineering diagrams, astronomical charts, and similar works. The U.S. Copyright Office will register these types of works if they contain a sufficient amount of original pictorial or graphic material.
When the Office registers a technical or scientific drawing, the registration covers only the drawing itself and does not "extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." 17 U.S.C. § 102(b). Likewise, a registration for a technical drawing does not provide copyright protection for the design and manufacture of the item depicted in the drawing. 17 U.S.C. § 113(b).
Examples:
• Terence Town creates five drawings that show the same screw from different perspectives [e.g., top-down, bottom-up, left elevation, right elevation, and a close-up of the screw's grooves). Terence files an application that asserts a claim in "technical drawing." The drawings do not provide information concerning the measurements, specifications, or other information concerning the size, design, or material composition of the screw depicted therein. The registration specialist may register the claim. The registration covers the drawings, but not the screw itself.
• Teresa Todorov submits several drawings that contain specifications and information concerning the fastener depicted therein. The applicant asserts a claim in a "technical drawing and text" as well as "technical drawing and compilation." The registration specialist may ask the applicant to limit the claim to "technical drawing," because this term adequately describes the authorship in the drawings together with the compilation of information and data concerning the depicted object. The specialist would accept a claim in "text" only if the drawing contained adequate descriptive or informational textual matter other than mere numbers, measurements, descriptive words and phrases, or the like.
923 Architectural Works
The Copyright Act protects "architectural works." 17 U.S.C. § 102(a)(8). As discussed in Section 903.2, the statute defines an architectural work as "the design of a building as embodied in any tangible medium of expression, including a building, architectural plans, or drawings." 17 U.S.C. § 101. An architectural work "includes the overall form as well as the arrangement and composition of spaces and elements in the design, but does not include individual standard features." Id.
Chapter 900 : 35
12/22/2014
