Can one Copyright a Model?

My rudimentary understanding is that you'd need to register your creation with the US Copyright Office. That's if you're in the United States. Other nations have other laws. Frankly, unless somebody on the forum is a lawyer, you'd be better off consulting an attorney specializing in patents and copyrights.

What "BLACKSMITH" said. Seriously, in matters like this, don't get legal advice from a modeling forum. Consult a lawyer, or you're liable to lose your shirt!

One problem is whether you are printing an original design.  That is, did you design the prototype, the subject of the model.  If not, you could not copyright the original design, only the model variation.  Even for that, defending the copyright might be quite expensive, unless someone is making a large number of copies, where you can claim large damages.

Blacksmith-  Thanks man!

Karl- Thanks, don't worry I wasn't expecting concrete legal advice but just wondered if someone had gone though this before.  Lol "Finescale Attorneys at Law".

Don- Yes it is an original design.  I designed it and sculpted it in a 3D program.

Reason I brought this up was I saw this happen to a resin caster a few years ago who had his tanks robbed and reproduced.

You're in an area of the Copyright Law called a Design Patent, which protects your original design for the item(s) from copy, or "identical" derivations. As suggested you should check first with the US Copyright office/website for particulars and forms required to submit your application(s). This is something you can do as an individual or company without an attorney. Where you will (hopefully never) need legal help is in the instance that someone else decides to market a very similar product, in which case you will have to prove that theirs is a direct replica of yours at a later date.

Doesn't that sound like fun? The good part is that Copyright is fairly easy to establish, the bad part is that defending it is all on you at your expense, and how much can you make from products for models? The answer is probably your most encouraging thought - if there's not much in it, it won't pay anyone to copy you. My take is to go ahead and see if the process is worth it to you, and to be satisfied with the limited protection that the Copyright symbol affords.

I sincerely hope this helps you Cody. I'm a career graphic designer, and have dealt with copyright issues on small and large projects.

Best of luck!

Mike  

I don't think this is worth worrying about.  Legal fees would cost you more than you could ever recover selling the models.

Ok guys thanks!  Much appreciated!!! :)

As Mrmike & others say, the costs will probably outweigh any profits.

The other issue is enforcement, e.g., Neomega are posting on social media that a Russian(?) co are blatantly copying his stuff & passing it off as their own, but there is no economic way of enforcing his rights.

There are periodic spates of chinese companies selling bad quality knock-off copies of Hornet & various other OOP figures  on well-known auction sites, who sometimes will delete the item listings.

That said, I think that it is rare, as individuals will find the cost of copying your items exceeds the cost of buying them directly, nefarious individual companies excepted.

Bottom line is, you can use 3D printers to create your own masters for casting, or even sell them through sites such as shapeways, but you have little control of what happens after it leaves your hands, but if you got a better mousetrap it will sell.

Hi ;

    I was going to do this years ago on my Vac-U-Formed canopies . I found it was more trouble than what I would ever earn from it . So I got copied , ah Well ! I guess I will just have to let Numbers overtake the other guys . I can make more than they can . Then I said " Oh , Phooey " and just sold mine when asked ! T.B.       P.S. At the time I was doing canopies in 1/72-1/48-1/32 and 1/24 , 1/144 wasn't around much then .