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ARTICLE · 24 DECEMBER 2014

Copyright In House Plans

Field Law
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A couple, the Ecklunds, approached Oakcraft Homes, a custom home-builder. Based on their discussions, Oakcraft prepared a house plan and gave a copy of the plan to the Ecklunds.

CanadaIntellectual Property
Richard Stobbe
Richard Stobbe
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A couple, the Ecklunds, approached Oakcraft Homes, a custom home-builder. Based on their discussions, Oakcraft prepared a house plan and gave a copy of the plan to the Ecklunds. The couple later took that plan to a rival home builder, Toscana Developments. Toscana used Oakcraft's house plan without confirming whether the Ecklunds had the rights to that plan.

When Oakcraft discovered that Toscana had copied and modified the original plan, it sued both Toscana and the Ecklunds.

The law of copyright in Canada is evolving to deal with changes in technology, but there are still some cases where copyright intersects with the age-old professions of architecture and house-building. In the recent case of Oakcraft Homes Inc v. Ecklund, 2013 CanLII 41981 (ON SCSM), an Ontario court addressed the question of who owns a house plan for copyright purposes.

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