Are concept car designs protected?
Discussion
Hi all
I’ve been building a Ford GT40 for the past couple of years and looking at what my next project could be. I thought about doing another replica but fancy doing something different that I can put my own stamp on so am looking at building my own car.
I’ve seen a lot of amazing concept cars out there on the internet that have been designed by individuals not associated to any manufacturers and wondered if you design a concept car can you protect the design or could someone choose to build it? So could someone take a concept design they find and change a certain percentage of the design in order for it to be unique and therefore not liable to be sued by the original designer?
As an example there are 4 Lamborghini concepts below. What is stopping someone taking any of these designs changing them slightly to make it a little more real world and building them? Alternatively if you were to take 25% of the 4 cars and blended them together to make a new concept could I call it my own?
It seems like a bit of a grey area as on one hand you’re using someone’s idea/design but manufacturers in the kit car industry have been copying designs for years with replicas (GT40, Ferrari’s, Porsche).
Any thoughts?
Trevor
I’ve been building a Ford GT40 for the past couple of years and looking at what my next project could be. I thought about doing another replica but fancy doing something different that I can put my own stamp on so am looking at building my own car.
I’ve seen a lot of amazing concept cars out there on the internet that have been designed by individuals not associated to any manufacturers and wondered if you design a concept car can you protect the design or could someone choose to build it? So could someone take a concept design they find and change a certain percentage of the design in order for it to be unique and therefore not liable to be sued by the original designer?
As an example there are 4 Lamborghini concepts below. What is stopping someone taking any of these designs changing them slightly to make it a little more real world and building them? Alternatively if you were to take 25% of the 4 cars and blended them together to make a new concept could I call it my own?
It seems like a bit of a grey area as on one hand you’re using someone’s idea/design but manufacturers in the kit car industry have been copying designs for years with replicas (GT40, Ferrari’s, Porsche).
Any thoughts?
Trevor
PW said:
f
k you
lol....... really?k youYou make a good point that a design student who isn't employeed may give you a green light if approached however I really can't see the issue 99% of concept cars never see the light of day.
As long as i said previously your not selling the car as something youve designed I geninuely can't see the issue.
One would imagine car designers use whats round them for inspiration?
Hi guys
I'll try and give a bit more of a background of my idea and hopefully you can see why I've asked the previous questions.
I've been thinking of building my own car for a little while and there is one design I remembered seeing a few years and I keep coming back to it. It's a design that never made production so I recently contacted the designer to see if it would be possible to buy the design off him in order to take it and develop it further.
The artist has been very receptive to the idea and has offered me the designs for quite a large sum of money. The problem I have is that the design needs to be completely reworked, new lights, new bonnet, grill, doors etc. Even the wheelbase doesn't work so needs to be taken back to a blank sheet of paper and started again. That's before a more finished concept design can be sent to a CAD engineer and make it work in the 'real world'.
So there were two reasons I have asked the question. The first is that if I buy the designs and someone then makes a car that looks similar to 'my' design then where would I stand and could I do anything about it. The second reason is because of the huge amount of reworking that the design needs it's likely the finished car will be 95% different from the initial concept and only a couple of the key elements will be retained. I imagine that the silhouette of the car will be roughly the same but the rest will vary quite a bit.
Therefore should I be looking to buy the design or get the designer to allow me to use their design as a base? Is perhaps a royalty per car the way to go? The other problem I have is that the designer wants quite a bit of money for the concept which I can understand but on the other hand if the designer wants to see the concept built he might have to let go of it a little otherwise it might never see the light of day
Any help and thoughts much appreciated
Trev
I'll try and give a bit more of a background of my idea and hopefully you can see why I've asked the previous questions.
I've been thinking of building my own car for a little while and there is one design I remembered seeing a few years and I keep coming back to it. It's a design that never made production so I recently contacted the designer to see if it would be possible to buy the design off him in order to take it and develop it further.
The artist has been very receptive to the idea and has offered me the designs for quite a large sum of money. The problem I have is that the design needs to be completely reworked, new lights, new bonnet, grill, doors etc. Even the wheelbase doesn't work so needs to be taken back to a blank sheet of paper and started again. That's before a more finished concept design can be sent to a CAD engineer and make it work in the 'real world'.
So there were two reasons I have asked the question. The first is that if I buy the designs and someone then makes a car that looks similar to 'my' design then where would I stand and could I do anything about it. The second reason is because of the huge amount of reworking that the design needs it's likely the finished car will be 95% different from the initial concept and only a couple of the key elements will be retained. I imagine that the silhouette of the car will be roughly the same but the rest will vary quite a bit.
Therefore should I be looking to buy the design or get the designer to allow me to use their design as a base? Is perhaps a royalty per car the way to go? The other problem I have is that the designer wants quite a bit of money for the concept which I can understand but on the other hand if the designer wants to see the concept built he might have to let go of it a little otherwise it might never see the light of day
Any help and thoughts much appreciated
Trev
Jonty355 said:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE...... Make a replica GT90!
Jonty, the Ford GT90 has already been done by several people. http://www.ebeasts.com/2011/10/man-building-1000-h...I've spoke to the designer and explained my concerns about the car and that the concept needs to be reworked to be real world but the core design should try and remain the same. The problem I have is that the concept is a good one but the execution could be better and I've found another artist I want to use to create the final version of the design. So I'd be paying one artist for the original idea and then another to create a new design using core elements from the original.
Blib said:
OP, if you copy and build the design shown in the second picture down, I'll sue you for building a monstrosity!!
As opposed to, say, the third picture down which is also 
Giorgetto Giugiaro's Lamborghini Cala is what you should be aiming at, although I assume he'll want a fair few €€€ for the rights.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff