New Huawei Headquarters. Copyright infringement dispute | Victoria Balva
The USA trade war with China is one of the most discussed issues today in the press. I have my own story to tell about my experience in protecting my intellectual property and the integrity of my original artworks. Here we go... A practical study of copyright infringement of a Canadian glass artist
A few months ago I was contacted by a person located in Asia about enormously large stained and leaded glass skylight being built for Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen. Surprisingly, the rendering of the stained leaded glass skylight looked very similar in details and structure with some of my stained and leaded glass domes and ceilings.
Indeed, I sent a letter to an architectural and interior design company Nikken, located in Japan, that was working on the project. I expressed my concerns about the quality of the stained glass ceiling design, pointing out that it is a substantial copy of my work. After we exchanged a few letters, they conducted an internal investigation. Nikken accepted the fact that their employee looked at my designs while working on the project. So they appointed a Toronto based lawyer to handle the case.
While studying the images I was sent, I could see that the project was on the early stage of fabrication - glass samples, sample skylight pieces in scale 1 to 1, construction site meetings. That stained glass oval dome could be one of the most significant stained glass projects of 21 century. If properly designed this dome could become one of the most impressive glass ceilings in the world
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