Protect unique building designs

Nairobi skyline. Two buildings can have similar names and confuse potential customers. Photo/Salaton Njau 

By Cathy Mputhia
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Real estate developers consult lawyers on conveyancing and financing across the country, but we need to point out the gaps. Some legal issues have been overlooked, but they are important for securing unique concepts.

Protect the brand

Most developers have unique names for their developments and also have catchy logos. Most of these names and logos qualify for trademark protection under IP laws. A trademark is protection given to a brand, shape, logo or colour that is distinctive.

Real estate concepts can be protected through trademark as Nice Classification that marks brands, and allows for protection of brands under Class 36. Protecting the brand of your building is to ensure that no competitors ride on your goodwill.

Here is a story. Last week, I was looking for a certain building within the Central Business District when I was told that two buildings have similar names.

Many times, you find that buildings bear identical or similar sounding names, therefore, confusing the public

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Others ride on the goodwill of more established brands. It is, therefore, good to protect the name of your concept and its design. Some apartments in the same area bear similar names and confuse visitors.

A trademark can sort this confusion out, as the certificate will enable you to maintain a monopoly over your chosen brand, so long as you meet the qualifications

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Unique concept

Architects and other professionals come up with unique concepts that they ought to protect using IP. When you read through leading global magazines on architecture, you find great designs which actually qualify for IP protection.

This means that no other developer can come up with such a design. High-end buyers are keen on uniqueness and luxury.

Therefore, developers should ensure there is no room for duplication. I spent a day at a Fun Park in Karen and marvelled at the unique concept that the owner had created. As far as I am aware, there is no other Fun park of its kind in Kenya.

Developers of unique shops or premises can protect their designs through the principle of IP known as shop and layout design protection.

As with all IP, the design must be unique. So far, I am not aware of any protection of a unique shop layout being done in Kenya, however globally the practise has been to trademark the design.

Apple Inc. successfully trademarked its interior mainly to protect itself from the cheap copy-cat stores of China that fooled the public that they were selling Apple products.

The copy-cat stores took a similar design with the Apple Inc. stores, prompting the latter to protect the design of its shops