Plaintiff appeals on the judgment roll alone from a judgment in favor of defendants.
Questions Presented
1. Does a designer have a common-law copyright in plans for a house prepared by him?
2. Does the filing of the plans in a county office as required by law to obtain a building permit constitute a publication divesting plaintiff of his common-law copyright 1
(This is a ease of first impression in California.)
*746 Facts
Plaintiff, although not a licensed architect, is engaged in the business of designing homes. In his complaint he alleged that defendants were constructing a house, using, without his consent, plans and specifications created and designed by him, the reasonable value of the use of which is SS^OO. 1
The court entered a minute order giving judgment for defendants, and stating: “. . . defendants to prepare findings, consistent with the view that while there was a fiduciary relationship and a common law copyright, and the plans were ‘copies,’ and there was responsibility on the both defendants for copying them, the plans had been published, and also there was no resultant damage or profit.” The court found that defendant Paul ‘ ‘ copied said plans . . . for the construction of the residence for defendant Peter Pederson with the knowledge of said defendant that the Carr house was being substantially duplicated.”
1. Common-Law Copyright.
Section 980, Civil Code, provides:
“(a) The author or proprietor of any composition in letters or art has an exclusive ownership in the representation or expression thereof as against all persons except one who originally and independently creates the same or a similar composition.
“(b) The inventor or proprietor of any invention or design, with or without delineation, or other graphical representation, has an exclusive ownership therein, and in the representation or expression thereof, which continues so long as the invention or design and the representations or expressions thereof made by him remain in his possession.”
This section has been said to accept the traditional theory of protectible property under common-law copyright.
(Weitzenkorn
v.
Lesser
(1953),
Defendants rely upon a statement in 3 American Jurisprudence at page 1003: “With respect to the idea itself, however, where it is not protected by patent or copyright, it has been said that there is no intrinsic property in the architect’s design or any exclusive right in the design or in the reproduction.”
An examination of the case upon which this statement is based,
Mackay
v.
Benjamin Franklin Realty & Holding Co.,
2. Publication.
Publication of the plans would end the property right. (Civ. Code, § 983.) Plaintiff contends that as the filing of the plans was required by a Marin County ordinance in order to obtain a building permit, such filing was not voluntary and could not constitute a publication which would deprive the designer of his property right. In his contract with the Carrs, plaintiff retained ownership of the plans with the Carrs to have the exclusive use thereof. Defendants contend and the court found that the construction and maintenance of the house in full public view also constitutes a publication.
The nearest approach in California to the questions in
*748
volved here is in
Weinstock, Lubin & Co.
v.
Marks
(1895),
It has been held that “the filing of the original [of an intellectual product] for copyright purposes is a publication such as forever ends the right of the creator to claim a common law copyright, even though he fails to obtain a statutory copyright.”
(Kurfiss
v.
Cowherd, supra,
The architect expresses his thoughts and reveals his artistic personality in his plans, drawings and designs. In this respect, he is similar to all other creators of intellectual properties.. Additionally, however, he uses, among other things, *749 technical signs, symbols and graphic representations to communicate his ideas. 2
What constitutes “publication” of architectural plans, drawings and designs where the common-law copyright has attached has, so far as we have been able to determine, been considered in only three reported cases in this country. All are lower court decisions.
Wright
v.
Eisle, supra,
Generally, writers who have considered the subject contend that these cases are wrong in principle.
3
Only a “general publication” and not a “limited publication” results in loss of common-law rights.
(William A. Meier Glass Co.
v.
Anchor Hocking Glass Corp.
(Pa., 1951),
The purpose of the requirement of filing the plans in a government office is to protect the public from unsafe construction —not to take away from the architect his common-law property rights. It must be remembered that, generally speaking, it is only by repeated uses of the same sets of plans (or modifications thereof) that the architect really profits from his intellectual production. In a completed structure the architect is not publishing a copy of his plans. The structure is the result of his plans and while he is publishing the general design (such as in
Weinstock, Lubin & Co.
v.
Marks, supra,
The architect derives no profit from the deposit of his plans with the building department. He does not thereby sell his work and has no intention of dedicating it to the public. He is *751 merely complying with a governmental regulation, which regulation, in itself, does not require a dedication, and is merely to insure that if the architect’s plans are thereafter used, the structure thereby designed shall comply with governmental regulations.
In view of the language of section 983, subdivision (b), “If the owner of any invention or design intentionally makes it public,” (emphasis added) we do not believe that the mere filing of the architect’s plans in a building inspector’s office or in any governmental office in compliance with a requirement that the plans be so filed in order to obtain a building permit constitutes a publication. While the filing is “intentional” in a sense, it is a compulsory filing and would not appear to be accompanied by the intention required by the statute, nor filed with the intention of making the plans public.
Section 1892, Code of Civil Procedure, provides: “Every citizen has a right to inspect and take a copy of any public writing of this state, except as otherwise expressly provided by statute.” Section 1893 provides that “Every public officer having the custody of a public writing, which a citizen has a right to inspect, is bound to give him, on demand, a certified copy of it, on payment of the legal fees therefor, and such copy is admissible as evidence in like cases and with like effect as the original writing.” Section 1894 provides that “Public writings” include “4. Public records, kept in this state, of private writings.” In
Harrison
v.
Powers
(1912),
As we have pointed out, the forced filing of the plans in the building department of a municipality constitutes only a limited publication of the common-law copyright, a limited publication which gives no person the right to use a copy thereof. In view of the limited purpose of the filing of architect’s plans in a building department the plans do not become a public record in the sense that the public has the right to use such plans. The plans are in the category of those mentioned in
Runyon
v.
Board of Prison Terms & Paroles,
In
United States
v.
Certain Parcels of Land,
In
Stanley
v.
Columbia Broadcasting System
(1950),
In
Wright
v.
Eisle, supra,
The decision in the Wright case is weakened somewhat by the fact that the court held that there is no evidence in the case that the defendant, or anyone acting in his behalf, had copied the plans and specifications on file in the building department, and the fact that the plaintiff architect had transferred to the person for whom he had prepared the plans, all property rights therein, whereas in our case the plaintiff architect retained their ownership.
In
Kurfiss
v.
Cowherd, supra,
Is it legally sound to say that a completed structure is a publication of its plans ? It has been held that for a work to be published it must be reproduced, that is, there must be an issuance of copies to the general public.
(White-Smith Music Co.
v.
Apollo Co.
(1907),
In considering what constitutes publication of a common-law copyright, it is necessary to remember the fundamental difference between a common-law copyright and the federal statutory copyright. Common-law copyright is usually referred to as the right of first publication for once a work is published the owner’s common-law protection is gone, and anyone may copy the work.
(Werckmeister
v.
American Lithographic Co., supra,
As this is a ease of first impression in California we must decide between adopting the rather limited view of the three cases in other jurisdictions above mentioned which held that filing in a municipal building department of architectural plans or the building of the structure therefrom, constitutes a general publication causing-the loss of the architect’s common-law copyright or adopting what to us appears the better reasoning and the more equitable result, namely, that both acts constitute a limited publication which does not cause such loss. We adopt the latter view and hold that in this case the plaintiff did not lose his common-law copyright.
In view of the court’s statement in the minute order for judgment that plaintiff’s plans were “ ‘copied,’ and there was responsibility on the both defendants for copying them,” (a somewhat similar finding appears in the findings) the judgment is reversed as to the issue of liability and remanded to the trial court for trial upon the issue of damages alone.
Wood (Fred B.), J., and Tobriner, J., concurred.
Respondents’ petitions for a hearing by the Supreme Court were denied December 23, 1959.
Notes
Joined for trial is an action by Albert B. Carr and Marie A. Carr (the persons for whom plaintiff made the original plans) against defendants, claiming $7,500 damages due to the use without their consent of said plans and specifications and duplicating their house. No appeal was taken in that action from the judgment in favor of defendants.
Defendant Paul, the contractor who constructed the house for defendant Pederson, did not appear on this appeal either by brief or on the argument.
See “Copyright Protection of Architectural Plans, Drawings and Designs’’ by Arthur S. Katz, in vol. 19, Law and Contemporary Problems, 225, 229-230 (1954).
See Katz, supra; “Publication in the Zaw of Copyright" by Richard W. Roberts in Copyright Law Symposium Number Nine, at p. 135; 24 So. Cal. L. Rev. 375.
