7 Design Protection Tips to Keep Away Thieves

With the internet being available to anyone, anytime, and anywhere, technology has made plagiarism crazy easy. You will probably find yourself stuck between showcasing your architectural work and trying to do some design protection procedures by hiding them from design-thieves.

Although intellectual property is essential in our profession, there is no need to become too obsessive about protecting your projects, that you end up hiding your work. Living in your own bubble may protect your design from theft; however, it will not help you attract new clients.

1. Differentiate between inspiration and stealing

Zaha Hadid’s pirated building in China. Zaha Hadid’s Wangjing Soho project (left) – (Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects) and the Meiquan 22nd Century project (right) – (Courtesy of Sina)

Architects get influenced by each other every day and this is completely normal.This is usually not a bad thing. It is part of an architect’s job to find inspiration wherever they go. There is no reason for us to waste time reinventing the wheel, however, a clear line between plagiarism and inspiration must be defined. Firstly, if someone uses your work without crediting the source they got it from, then this is plagiarism.

Courtesy of The Chicago Tribune

Additionally, if someone is carbon-copying your work and using it to gain financial income or gain a reputation for something that is not theirs, then this is most certainly plagiarism. One thing to keep in mind is that almost everything we do has been inspired by someone else’s past work or existing designs.

A lot of architects are overprotective about their designs that they completely restrain themselves from sharing their work at all. Remember not to fall into this trap and spend the rest of your life not marketing any of your designs. Instead, use copyright infringement techniques to protect your design.

2. Watermarks are your best friend

Photography: Bruno Klomfar

One of the simplest forms of design protection is adding a watermark, no tech-buff experience required. If anyone tries to save your file or make a copy of it they will find your watermark. However, note that watermarks can only do provide limited help when it comes to trying to protect your designs.

You can use the Google image search to find out if someone out there has stolen any of your work. If you find in the results that the exact same picture of your work is lurking on an unknown website without your permission then you should contact the author and ask them to take it down or to give credits and link to your website. The second option is better as it might serve as a way to market your work.

3. Use Copyright disclaimers

You need to be crystal clear that your designs are not available for free copying, whether they are in the form of drawings, plans, sketches, or 3d renderings.

To do this you will simply need the following 4 points at the bottom of your blog or website or architecture portfolio :

• The Copyright Symbol ( this could be ©, a (c) or the word “Copyright”)
• The Year of the Creation
• The Name of the Author
• A Rights Statement

4. Opt for Licensing

If copyright disclaimers are not enough for you or you have suffered from copyright infringement even after adding watermarks and copyright disclaimers, then licensing is a must.

Renderings, 3d shots, and almost any image format are the easiest files for people to copy and the most common among architects.There are several licensing options you can go for to protect your images no matter what file extension they have. One of these options is getting a license via creativecomons.org where there a few different licenses that you could get according to your needs.

5. Block Screen scraper apps from accessing your codes

Courtesy of Adobe Stock

Did you know that there are employees out there whose job is finding out how to scrape your site and even give its content to others?

In case you do not know about scraping (also known as Web scraping, Screenscraping, Web data mining, Web harvesting, or Web data extraction), it is a tool that web designers and IT specialists use to extract data from websites in the form of databases.

By blocking scraping sites, you prevent them from accessing the codes of your website or blog.

For design protection, start by monitoring your logs you can sense if there is anything fishy going on. You can limit access to your website once you detect unusual activity such as having a lot similar request from a specific IP address. Another good alternative is to use a Captcha. You can choose to block requests from a certain IP address. Additionally, constant changing of the HTML of your pages this will make it harder for the scraper to steal the work.

6. Do not leave your work at the plotter

Courtesy of Epson

One of the most common ways for architectural works to get stolen is through forgetting files at plotters and printing facilities.

If you are printing your portfolio or any of your work in a public printing facility then make sure you sign out of your email. Always delete your files right after you finish printing. Remember to erase them from the recycle bin as well.

7. Make sure everything you share is documented

This step is simple but can go a long way in tracking down who might be stealing your work. If you’re serious about design protection, you need to be extra careful with whom you share confidential information.

Stephen Key, the specialist in licensing and entrepreneurship, says that you can sometimes fall into the trap of sharing information with a client or a partner through an email and end up being scammed. He adds that if things get too serious, having solid evidence will help you prove your case. “Follow up every conversation you have about your idea over email,” said Key.

“Years ago, I sued one of the largest toy companies in the world for patent infringement in federal court. My paper trail helped solidify my story.”

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