allardone
15 October 2019CopyrightRory O'Neill

One World Trade Center copyright claims are time-barred: judge

A US court has dismissed most of the copyright claims brought by an architect who claims to have created the original design for the  One World Trade Center building in Manhattan.

In an order issued on September 30, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York allowed just three out of ten claims brought by Jeehoon Park to proceed to discovery, noting that even these three survived “only by the skin of their teeth”.

In his opinion, judge Richard Sullivan concluded that most of Park’s claims, originally filed in 2017, were time-barred under the three-year statute of limitations.

Under the statute, copyright claims cannot be brought more than three years after the claim is “accrued”, or when the plaintiff becomes aware of the alleged infringement of their copyright.

“It is hard to imagine how any architect worth his or her salt could have somehow missed the public announcements and designs of one of the most famous and highly anticipated skyscrapers in the world,” Sullivan wrote.

Park sued international architects’ firm  Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 2017, claiming that their design for the building ripped off a design called Cityfront ‘99 that he had submitted as part of his Masters’ thesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999.

The suit was based on claims that Park’s copyright was infringed by SOM’s design for the New York skyscraper, publicly unveiled in 2005, as well as by the tower’s actual construction and promotional images of the building.

Tishman Construction and WTC Tower 1, who built and now manage the building, respectively, were also named as defendants in the suit.

In his order, Sullivan dismissed the majority of Park’s claims, with the three remaining all relating to promotional images of the building.

“But while discovery may proceed on those claims, it seems highly likely that they will be resolved in the defendants’ favour on a motion for summary judgment, unless the plaintiff can show that the drawings, promotional materials, tickets, and souvenirs at issue were actually based on the design of Cityfront ‘99 rather than the brick and mortar tower that now stands in Lower Manhattan,” Sullivan said.

Park’s lawyer Daniel Kent, co-founder of Georgia-based firm  Kent & Risley, told real estate news site  The Real Deal that the order marked a “big step forward” for his client.

“Judge Sullivan recognised the obvious and substantial similarity between Mr Park’s design and the infringing building,” Kent said.

He added: “The court could have dismissed all of Mr Park’s claims, but did not, and the remaining claims appear to have significant value.”

SOM was described in the suit as one of the “world’s preeminent architectural firms”. The company has worked on major skyscrapers including the Time Warner Center in New York and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk