Estonian Architects Sue Construction Company for Copyright Infringement

Estonian architects Laur Pihel and Tauno Aadma have initiated court proceedings against the Estonian construction company Nordicasa for copyright infringement, asserting that Nordicasa is marketing and building in Spain, without their consent, an ethno-house that they designed and which was nominated for best-designed wood-based home this year.

The Estonian architects claim that an exact copy of the house they built in the Estonian village of Neeme in 2007 has been built in the Spanish ski resort of Valdelinares, maintaining that “the idea and the general architectural look is clearly plagiarized”.

On the other hand, Nordicasa head Jaak Kangro claims that his company bought the rights to this design from a Bolivian architect. Responding to the comment that a number of international architectural and design websites attribute this design to him, Kangro noted that he never claimed to be the architect, considering he is “just a builder”, and that he could not be responsible for what is written on the Internet.

Kangro further claims that the two buildings are “completely different”, citing his solicitor who argues that for the two houses to be copies, they need to be made using the same blueprint, which they are not. “There are different windows, doors, everything is in contrasting sizes, in different places, different numbers and different shapes,” Kangru said.

Pihel and Aadma have the support of the Union of Estonian Architects, which noted that, considering the unique concept of the house, the house in Spain “is very recognizably similar to the one in Estonia”.

To see the architects’ house, please go here.

To see the construction company’s house, please go here.

For more information, please contact Aleksandra Pavlovic at our Macedonia office.

Source: ERR News — Estonian Public Broadcasting English-language news