<b><b>Solicitor Simon Bennett of law firm Denton Wilde Sapte looks at the tricky area of copyright and what we can learn from recent case law</b></b><br><b> Issues of copyright are often not considered by planners until too late or indeed after a dispute has arisen. The work undertaken in preparing detailed plans and drawings for the purpose of obtaining planning permission to build houses can, in some cases, be considerable. Under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 a drawing is classified as an artistic work and ownership of copyright in the work resides in the author of the work concerned. But if a work is created by a commission the commissioner is normally only entitled to a licence to use the drawings created for the purposes of the commission. </b><br><b>What is often overlooked is that in the absence of any agreement to contrary, the original author of the drawing owns the copyright in the drawings. The most a court will do is to imply a licence by which the commissioner will be entitled to use the drawings for the purposes of the commission and nothing further.</b><br><b><b>A contentious issue</b></b><br> In the context of housebuilding and property development this issue has proved …