Re: [Paddlewise] Boat copies

Nick Schade wrote:
> The Vessel Hull Design Protection Act, Title 17, Chapter 13 off the 
> United States Code: http://www.copyright.gov/vessels/

There is a 2003 report which is worth reading.

http://www.copyright.gov/reports/vhdpa-report.pdf

There are some interesting things in the report.  (I'm quoting here, 
feel free to read the whole report.)

Design protection for vessel hulls is for a period of ten years and is 
available only for original designs that are embodied in an actual 
vessel hull: no protection is available for designs that exist only in 
models, drawings, or representations.

A design that is embodied in a vessel hull "that was made public by the 
designer or owner in the United States or a foreign country more than 
two years before the date of application for registration" of the design 
is not eligible.

Protected designs that are made public must bear a proper design notice. 
  Unlike notice of copyright, which is permissive, notice on a vessel 
hull design is mandatory.

The evidence to date that the VHDPA has been effective in suppressing 
infringements of protected vessel hull designs is scant and anecdotal. 
There appears to be only one lawsuit which has been brought under the 
VHDPA...There may have been private settlements of disputes.

Several of the parties submitting comments ... assert that the VHDPA has 
encouraged them to create new designs for vessel hulls.  J. J. Marie, 
President of Zodiac of North America, Inc., states that "the existence 
of this legislation clearly pushes our engineers and designers to create 
innovative and different products...Were it not the VHDPA, the incentive 
for innovation would clearly be diminished."

Applicants may choose to submit drawings, photographs, or other 
pictorial depictions of the design...The regulations do not require 
engineering drawings or depictions that contain dimensions, and the 
application form asks for nothing more than a brief description of the 
salient features of the design.

In response to the February 13, 2003, Federal Register notice, all of 
the written comments received from industry representatives included 
statements opposing the Copyright Office's practice of posting 
registered boat hull designs on the Internet for public access.
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