The Coach: Should I sue ex-employer that ripped off my design?

A practice I used to work for copied my design idea. They are now implementing it in a project. Should I consider legal action?

Intellectual property is a complex area and not my specialism. However, the premise of defending this kind of intellectual property is that it has been correctly registered before it is public in any way, and you can unequivocally prove it is unique.

I quite understand why you feel annoyed by seeing what you think as yours being used by others; after all, a sense of authorship is hard-wired into many architects.

It is not clear from your question whether you were employed by this firm when you had the idea you say has now been replicated. If so, depending on your employment contract, the authorship is likely to be open, if not all theirs – you were being paid by them at the time. 

The financial implications make the legal route somewhat unrealistic

There is a reason why legal battles on such cases are usually only pursued between the likes of Samsung and Apple, where the stakes are high. Slogging it out over whether one company ‘owns’ curved corners to their devices makes sense, as a decision in their favour can lead to the sale of millions of identical objects that can easily pay back the lawyers’ fees many times over. At your scale, the financial implications make the legal route, usually a costly one, somewhat unrealistic.  

On a bigger scale, not much is new in any case, and many would say we are often synthesising what has come before and that that is a good thing. Perhaps this is more a case of simultaneously coming up with a good idea. 

We trade in our ideas, yet in order to do that, we often have to expose our hard-earned skills upfront; it isn't something you can easily shroud in secrecy. This is one reason why legal registration of architectural design is uncommon. 

So perhaps let it pass. But as you do so, think of two things:

You could see this positively as an affirmation of your skills as a designer, and use this confirmation to move on to your next great project in a sharing, and expansive way. 

Also, use it to learn about what drives you.  What specifically was it that you felt aggrieved by and what would you want? Recognition?  Money? An apology? This is a helpful indication of your motivations, knowledge of which may pay off in the future.

AJ Coach Matthew Turner is an architect and careers consultant who runs the Building on Architecture consultancy. Email him in confidence at hello@buildingonarchitecture.com