Construction OberView

May 2011

2011 Maryland General Assembly: Which Bills Will Affect Your Operation?

By: Jackson B. Boyd

A number of bills were passed during the Maryland General Assembly's 2011 legislative session that will impact certain sectors of the construction industry. Ober|Kaler has put together brief summaries of certain bills from information supplied by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services.

Word to the Wise Follow-Up: the 2007 AIA Form Contract

By: Anthony F. Vittoria

In the last edition of Construction OberView, we focused on the respective intellectual property rights that an owner and its architect have in the plans created by the architect, but paid for by the owner. In that article, we pointed out that, under the 1997 American Institute of Architects (“AIA”) B141 form contract, the architect retains all intellectual property rights in the plans, while the owner is provided only a nonexclusive license to use and reproduce that material. Under the B141, if the contract is terminated for any reason, the owner’s license to use the architect’s work is terminated and the owner must return the work to the architect within seven (7) days. A second license that enables the owner to use the architect’s work arises only after the architect is “adjudged” to have been in default of the contract.