Property Developers: Do You Have The Necessary IP Rights?

In a recent High Court case in England, Signature Realty Ltd v Fortis Developments Ltd it was found that a property developer, Signature Realty Limited ("Signature"), was in breach of copyright law for copying and using drawings contained in a planning permission, in which they had no intellectual property rights.

Signature purchased the site with the benefit of planning permission for the conversion of an office building to student accommodation.  The drawings (together with the copyright) had been procured by another developer, Fortis Developments Ltd ("Fortis"), who had originally obtained the planning permission with a view to acquiring the site.  Signature used the drawings procured by Fortis in their marketing materials, for tendering and estimating purposes, as the basis for amended versions of the design drawings and in the construction itself, with the assistance of their own architects.