What the client actually gets
The civil engineer's copyright licence to the client
Updated
A licence to use the drawings for the scheme they were issued for. Not the copyright, and not a right to sell the drawings on.
Why the client needs a licence at all
Section 17 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says copying an artistic work includes making a copy in three dimensions of a two-dimensional work. Building a culvert from a drawing is, in copyright terms, a copy of that drawing, so the client needs the engineer's permission to build it. The appointment gives that permission as a licence.
How each publisher frames it
- ACE
- The client may copy and use the material for the purposes for which it was provided, and the consultant may revoke the licence on seven days' notice if the client does not pay.
- NEC
- Its article on NEC4 says intellectual property belongs to the party that created the work unless the contract states otherwise, and notes that the contracts refer to material and design rather than defining intellectual property.
- EJCDC
- Its E-570 subconsultant form says the prime agreement sets the rules for ownership, copyright and use of the design documents a subconsultant prepares.
Source: Who owns a civil engineer's drawings, provision by provision
What that leaves with the practice
A licence for one scheme leaves the copyright, and the right to license it to someone else, with the practice. Section 51 of the UK Act also says that, for a design of anything other than an artistic work, making an article to the design does not infringe copyright in the design document, which is why a buyer of drawings looks for the drawings themselves, the design reasoning and the calculations behind them, not the built asset. The practice's side of the question, which of its schemes it can license, is on can a civil engineering firm sell its design models.