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01-06-2010, 04:13 PM
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Legal advice about Infringement
Legal advice about Infringement
Q : We built our home in 2005/2006. Received a letter this week that basically we were being sued for Infringement of Residential Designed Solutions, Inc houseplan. They say their copyright is being infringed by the design and building of our home. First part of letter says copyright application is presently pending, later in letter says has a copyright date extending back to 2003. We saw the home at a Parade of Homes in 2004, did not use the builder that built it in the Parade of Homes, had no blueprints from him, only had the brochure they pass out at each home in the parade, and our builder took that and made blueprints based on the brochure and what we wanted. Our builder said as long as we made 10% of changes there wouldn't be a problem. We made at least 10% in changes from the home we saw in 2004. Letter states our home is strikingly similar so therefore an infringement. Home has been built for 4 years, has anyone ever heard of such a thing or is the home market so bad that they're just trying anything? A : "... our builder took that and made blueprints based on the brochure and what we wanted." Oopsie (perhaps). "Our builder said as long as we made 10% of changes there wouldn't be a problem." Even if your builder is a particular individual, is he an attorney? Even if he *is* an attorney, you shouldn't have relied on any legal assertions he made. A letter can't indicate you are *being sued*; either they've filed a suit or they haven't; sounds like this is just a demand letter. If you are actually served with a lawsuit, immediately seek local counsel with experience in copyright infringement. (Of course, you're free to ignore this letter or take it to such an attorney beforehand for them to write a response letter, if you like.) This forum offers free legal advice for citizens of the following States of America Alabama AL , Alaska AK , American Samoa AS , Arizona AZ , Arkansas AR , California CA , Colorado CO , Connecticut CT , Delaware DE , District of Columbia DC , Federated States of Micronesia FM , Florida FL , Georgia GA , Guam GU , Hawaii HI , Idaho ID , Illinois IL , Indiana IN , Iowa IA ,Kansas KS , Kentucky KY , Louisiana LA , Maine ME , Marshall Islands MH , Maryland MD , Massachusetts MA , Michigan MI , Minnesota MN , Mississippi MS , Missouri MO , Montana MT , Nebraska NE , Nevada NV , New Hampshire NH , New Jersey NJ , New Mexico NM , New Mexico NM , New York NY , North Carolina NC , North Dakota ND , Northern Mariana Islands MP , Ohio OH , Oklahoma OK , Oregon OR , Palau PW , Pennsylvania PA , Puerto Rico PR , Rhode Island RI , South Carolina SC , South Dakota SD , Tennessee TN , Texas TX , Utah UT , Vermont VT , Virgin Islands VI , Virginia VA , Washington WA , West Virginia WV , Wisconsin WI , Wyoming WY 
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