Town and Country Homes Wins Copyright Infringement Case

Darren Schwiebert, a shareholder in Fredrikson & Byron's Intellectual Property Litigation section, successfully defended Minnesota homebuilder Town and Country Homes, Inc. against a claim of copyright infringement brought by a competing homebuilder, Rottlund Company. After over three years of litigation and four weeks of trial, the jury deliberated for two days and returned a verdict in favor of Town and Country, and other defendants, Pinnacle Corporation, and Bloodgood, Sharp, Buster Architects.

Rottlund asked the jury for $31 million in damages based on its claim that Town and Country's back-to-back town homes infringed on the copyrighted designs of Rottlund's back-to-back town homes. Schwiebert, along with attorneys from Holland and Knight, who defended Pinnacle, and MacKall, Crounse & Moore, who represented the architects, successfully proved to the jury that Town and Country's town homes were not copied from Rottlund's town homes.

The jury rejected Rottlund's attempt to attach copyright protection to basic elements common to the vast majority of town homes built in the Twin Cities and around the country. For example, a basic element such as a powder room on the first level of a home is not protected by copyright. "Copyright law protects the expression of ideas and ensures that the creative and unique aspects of home construction are preserved," noted Schwiebert. "However, it does not give any single builder a monopoly on the generic design or layout of a town home."