Legal questions about modeling products that currently exist.

[JonSchaeffer]

I am wondering about ethics and legal information here.

Who can I contact within Fusion that can answer the legal issues about taking an existing product, reverse engineering it, modeling it then modifying it to create a new product. 

Is it legal to do?

Is it ethical to do?

Is it ok to share the solid models?

Is it ok to only share images of the new product?

I'm asking because I am being asked to take something down off the gallary that I created.

Granted I did only share the images captured from the rendered model I created, and I use my gallary to show my work to potential job prospects of my work.

I absolutely respect current products being deveoped and I do not want to cause any problems with people who have spent huge time and money with thier products getting them to developement...

So I am asking for a clear definition on this topic.

[Pedro_Bidarra]

I'm not a lawyer or work for Autodesk but I can give you my opinion.

This is about copyright and/or design patents.

It's not the modelling of an existing product that might infringe on someone else's copyright/patents, it's the distribution of such artwork.

* Maybe it wasn't clear in your gallery that the authorship of that specific design (not the modelling) isn't yours.

* The design might be covered by design patents (the iPhone is an example where the design itself is patented as a design patent), in such case you cannot copy the design for a similar product, however modelling is not a similar product.

* Finally, back to copyright, drawings and modelling of a specific product are artistic creations that are protected by copyright. What you modelled might have been subject itself to drawings and models before which are protected by copyright, thus, you are copying those drawings models. So the copyright you are infringing isn't the product itself but the drawings of it.

[daniel_lyall]

there is a amount of differences they have to prove it is to simaller or it`s the same if your thing has 10 differences to there product it`s different, color does not count, type of material, size, so on and country where made is a difference's as well if the copyright,  patent has not been filed in that country.

I know one person who went through this process they just sold the design they did to the company who complaned as there design was better and they could have reversed the complaint and would have won, 1 mill plus 10% per year is what it was sold for.

the iphone cover design and back`s people have done in fusion is a copyright infringement but that's up to apple to stop not AD,

so if they can prove it to close or you know its to close to there design you need to remove it