November 15, 2004

Paul Oravec says he was “shocked and dismayed” to see design photos of the Trump Grande Ocean Resort and Residences in newspapers. That’s because the Miami architect claims Trump turned down similar concave-convex concepts he created in 1996.

So dismayed is Oravec that he filed a copyright violation suit against the billionaire hotel developer asking a judge to halt construction and order the destruction of the two Trump-branded condo towers. Oravec is also seeking unspecified damages.

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Intellectual property attorney David Tener, a partner with Caesar, Rivise, Benstein, Coehn & Pokotilow in Philadelphia, says while architects cannot completely avoid such disputes, they can take steps to discourage design theft.

“Contractual provisions specifying that ownership of all intellectual property rights remains with the architect and prompt copyright registration are two readily implemented means for minimizing ownership disputes, or at least maximizing the potential damages recovered in litigation or arbitration,” Tener says.

Trump legal counsel wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Jennifer LeClaire