In article ,
SPAM)vasys" "no(SPAM wrote:
WillR wrote:

Nova wrote:
I don't think you can get a copyright on a piece of furniture. For
the actual plans I'd say yes but not the piece itself. See:

http://www.legalzoom.com/law_library...protected.html

If it is considered a work of art, an original piece, an artistic
expression -- then you are wrong for sure.

See my other two posts.

Furniture would be covered under a design patent. To be considered
"art" a creation generally has no other function to serve as "art".

False-to-fact, on both counts.

Furniture could be protected under a design patent, if there was some 'novel'
functionality involved.

Furniture _can_ be protected under a design *copyright*. My folks have some
chairs in their house that are, in fact, so protected.

There have been many court cases involving furniture manufacturers where
one claims the other copied their design. It gets rather tricky as to
what design or portion of a design is already in the public domain due
to prior public use under "35 U.S.C. Section 102(b) Conditions for
patentability; novelty and loss of right to patent" of the patent laws.

Copyright. and design copyrights are an *entirely* different subject
from 'patents'.

See 17 USC 1301 et. seq. for the appropriate section of U.S. law.

Federal court rulings indicate a piece of furniture would have to have
a very unusual or novel feature for a patent infringement claim to be
held up by the courts.

For _patent_, entirely correct. _Copyright_ is an entirely different
kettle of fish.