Arch-viz and intellectual property

[Mohamed BENIANE]

Hi,

I'm an Archviz artist and I need an answer to a question, please.

 

Do furniture companies prevent modeling their products and selling them online or using them in architectural visualization scenes projects?

is it the same thing for exterior and interior architecture projects?

 

Thanks for your help.

best regards

 

Benianus 3D

[Scott Schroeder]

This is a tricky subject and take what I write with the fact that I'm only well versed in Bird Law. The general answer is no, they can't necessarily prevent you from modeling it and selling it. However, where it gets into the legal gray area is on things like company logos or iconic designs within the model, like a car's headlights for example. This is precisely the area where BMW sued TurboSquid over the use of selling BMW cars on their site. They specifically mentioned in the lawsuit the use of BMW's logos and copyrighted designs of the grills and headlamps.

As far as architectural models for exterior and interior, no they can't necessarily stop you either as long as you use the building in a normal way. Most architecture is considered public realm. This year's Call of Duty release got into hot water over a museum map that was a little too close to the real life one and had to take that map down as the actual museum didn't approve of the use of it. I believe they also created some controversy with the hotel map that was nearly an exact copy of a real life hotel as well, but that map is still in the game.

Both the above examples are multi-million to billion dollar companies, so I think just your normal 3D person won't ever be bothered too much. I highly doubt that Davis Design is concerned about the few bucks you might make selling their furniture on 3Dsky or smilar.

[Mohamed BENIANE]

On 1/31/2023 at 7:29 PM, Scott Schroeder said:

public

Some manufacturer refuse that, ex: poltrona, wittmann, zanotta ... also some architecture firms

I don't know why it's just a 3d file.

[Mohamed BENIANE]

On 1/31/2023 at 7:29 PM, Scott Schroeder said:

This is a tricky subject and take what I write with the fact that I'm only well versed in Bird Law. The general answer is no, they can't necessarily prevent you from modeling it and selling it. However, where it gets into the legal gray area is on things like company logos or iconic designs within the model, like a car's headlights for example. This is precisely the area where BMW sued TurboSquid over the use of selling BMW cars on their site. They specifically mentioned in the lawsuit the use of BMW's logos and copyrighted designs of the grills and headlamps.

As far as architectural models for exterior and interior, no they can't necessarily stop you either as long as you use the building in a normal way. Most architecture is considered public realm. This year's Call of Duty release got into hot water over a museum map that was a little too close to the real life one and had to take that map down as the actual museum didn't approve of the use of it. I believe they also created some controversy with the hotel map that was nearly an exact copy of a real life hotel as well, but that map is still in the game.

Both the above examples are multi-million to billion dollar companies, so I think just your normal 3D person won't ever be bothered too much. I highly doubt that Davis Design is concerned about the few bucks you might make selling their furniture on 3Dsky or smilar.

Some manufacturer refuse that, ex: poltrona, wittmann, zanotta ... also some architecture firms

I don't know why it's just a 3d file.