Copyrights protect fixed tangible originality, or "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression."

"Original" means the work was 1) independently created (as opposed to copied from other works) and 2) possesses some creativity. A slight creative spark will suffice.

Familiar symbols or designs are not original. Ephemeral creations are not fixed, and thus do not get copyrights - dance, song, mime, lecture, earthworks, skywriting, etc. - unless they are recorded.

The recording is fixed and tangible derivative work of the original; derivative because the medium in which the original is presented has changed.

Technical drawings, including engineering and architectural plans, are categorized as "pictorial, graphic and sculptural works." They have the same copyright protection as artwork.

Aspects of creations which are functional - useful in any way - are not protected by copyright, but may qualify for patent protection. Any ideas the creations express or evoke in people are free for public use. Ideas are free. Ideas can get protection from confidentiality agreements.

Copyrights consists of minutely divisible rights to 1) make copies; 2) create new works based upon the original; 3) publicly distribute the creation and its derivatives by transfer of all or partial rights by license, will or sale, and if its medium allows; 4) publicly display; and/or 5) public performance of the creations.

Divisions of rights vary in geography, time, media, purpose and exclusivity.

Architectural works that have been constructed get special, quirky, barely useful rights in their own special section. The copyright owner may "prevent the making, distributing or public display of pictures, paintings, photographs or other pictorial representations of the work, if the building in which the work is embodied is [not] located in or ordinarily visible from a public place."

Nonetheless, "the owners of a building embodying an architectural work may, without the consent of the author or copyright owner of the architectural work, make or authorize the making of alterations to [or destroy] such building." Posters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame spurred the hall and I.M. Pei to lobby for this section; they got it, but they did not get the desired rights - control of pictorial representations of any constructed work.

Not all copying from copyrighted material is an infringement. Ideas are free; historical, scientific and factual information is free; common shapes are free; and utilitarian elements are free. No longer does effort in discovering, exploring, surveying, calculating and drafting affect whether copyrights exist. Your particular expression is copyrighted. Precipitating out the free from the protected is particularly difficult.

Consider how much of an engineering plan has no relationship to the function of the item depicted. If the engineer followed the maxim of providing just enough to work, yet no more, then nothing in the drawing is purely original expression. The design may be elegant, imaginative, beautiful ... even transcendent like the Parthenon and the Pantheon and Fallingwater. However, any choice made with consideration of function is not original expression.

The functional aspect makes it not original, because any other designer who is set upon the same task must conform his/her choices to the utilitarian need. Even if another designer would make another choice, parts of a design which have functional constraints are not original and thus are free to copy. Copyrights exist only if, and only to the extent that, a design incorporates pictorial, graphic or sculptural features that can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the article.

Architectural plans also have much that is free. Existing physical characteristics of the site and structure, shapes, dimensions, grade contours and the location of landmarks and structures are facts. What can get copyrights are drawings which require the selection or elimination of detail; choices regarding the size, shape and density of informative legends; personal conventions relating to color or designs representing topographical or other features; and many other details of presentation.

Once the drawing moves beyond vague, general indications of shape and placement of the elements, copyrights arise in the particulars.

Consider a subdivision site plan. Copyrights exist in the building footprint, including the layout of the building and placements of utility structures; the distance between the lots and fences; the exact number of spaces; designations of spaces for the handicapped; distances between spaces and dimensions; placement of drives, curbs and walkways; displacement contours and elevation measurements; landscaping details and so on.

Decorative elements and adornments that would stand alone also get copyrights. Louis Sullivan's terracotta designs, gates, grates, mosaics and such are all capable of being separated from the wall or floor or ceiling and yet maintain their pictorial and sculptural character. Common shapes that are selected, coordinated and arranged in new ways get protection if those elements are numerous enough and their selection and arrangement original enough that their combination constitutes an original work of authorship.

What is important to remember is that it is hard to tell what is protected and how strong the protection is. The law gives a three-month grace period for registering copyrights after the work is finished and offered to the public. Since you never know which design will become your pet rock, I urge you to register new work quarterly to have your full compliment of copyright rights.

Steven Fox is a Buffalo attorney specializing in intellectual property issues.