District Judge Denis Hurley
Axelrod & Cherveny Architects PC and co-plaintiff Salyard held registered copyrights to the "Georgetown II" architectural designs. Axelrod’s uncopyrighted Georgetown II advertising brochure contained renditions of the copyrighted design for the Georgetown II home’s exterior, and also a floor plan for the copyrighted design of the home’s interior. The court found defendants "actually copied" plaintiffs’ architectural designs when designing, building and selling four "Franklin" homes that were substantially similar to plaintiffs’ copyrighted designs. In granting plaintiffs partial summary judgment as liability the court held that defendants’ act of copying the exterior of the Georgetown II home constituted an act of copyright infringement even if the interiors of the Franklin homes were not substantially similar to the Georgetown II designs. Citing Imperial Homes v. Lamont, Donald Frederick Evans & Assocs. v. Cont’l Homes and Herman Frankel Org. v. Tegman, district court also concluded that defendants’ copying of the floor plans in the Georgetown II brochure constituted a separate act of copyright infringement. Although not itself copyrighted, the brochure stated that "all floor plans and elevations [contained therein] are copyrighted."
