Intellectual property rights in building information modeling application in Taiwan

Despite the significant benefits associated with building information modeling (BIM), the industry has not properly addressed a host of legal issues, risks, and barriers. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is of primary concern; therefore, this paper attempts to discuss IPR in the context of BIM application. It reviews the two issues of who a BIM's copyright owner should be and how to avoid infringement of IPR raised by the previous literature and proposes solutions. Interviews were conducted with experts in Taiwan to discuss opinions on these two issues. Moreover, experts were also asked to comment on two new issues raised by this study: (1) possible ways in which professional knowledge relating to business can be protected; and (2) ways in which work on elements of BIM can be protected. Combining the results of literature reviews and interviews, this study concludes the issues of BIM application in IPR perspectives and suggests solutions. The importance of these issues and their proposed solutions is validated by a questionnaire distributed among various other experts, and the results are given. This paper not only summarizes the BIM's IPR issues but also proposes practical solutions accordingly.