Creation Is An Intellectual Property
Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana according to Bill Gates. IP should be protected and respected to maintain an ethical practice within professionalism. The Dubai Frame was envisioned by a Mexican architect, Fernando Donis. In 2009, in a competition organised by Dubai City and Thyssenkrupp Elevator under the supervision of Union Internationale des Architects (UIA) for a building representing a “new face for Dubai”. He participated and won among 900 competitors. But Donis claims that he did not receive any contract apart from the prize money.
The Bad Contract
Dubai Frame is a building of experience that is just 188 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Again, this adds to Dubai‘s high-rise buildings list to be visited by tourists. The frame has two towers at 493 feet in height and is connected with the sky bridge of 305 feet in length with a transparent floor. The design and the thought behind it is to showcase the past, present, and future of Dubai City, from a fishing village to a hub of commerce and tourism. On the other hand, Donis states that competition rules say that the creation will be a winner’s intellectual property and he or she will have complete rights on it. Without their consent, Dubai City will not use it. Whereas in 2013, when Donis got a contract from Dubai after a long back and forth, he was not considered as a stakeholder of his creation. Rather he has to serve as a mere consultant and is not allowed to visit the site or to promote the creation as his work. At this point, he decided not to sign the Bad Contract. Further, the city of Dubai started the construction with another group known as Arcadis’ subsidiary Hyder Consulting without Donis’s consent. For three consecutive years, warnings were sent to Dubai City and Thyssenkrupp, but in vain, and in 2016 it was decided to file a case for copyright infringement with the US Federal Supreme Court.
All the efforts by Donis were in vain because according to the legal system of Dubai City, it can be sued only if it wants to do it. Additionally, Thyssenkrupp claimed the lawsuit was unfounded as the company had no right to decide on the award of the contract. Also, even the UIA was powerless in this dispute and the city of Dubai was silent on the whole matter. After all the ruckus, the media recognized and said that the Dubai frame is Fernando Donis’s Intellectual property. Examples can be seen on Wikipedia and other platforms. But see how helpless a system can make a person to get a claim on his creation.
Copying, plagiarism, not following ethical practices and legal codes, etc. is a disrespect to the profession and society with which a person is associated. Money is the greatest weapon that can suppress any good intention. As Professionals, government, supporting authorities, and judiciary it is our duty to protect the right claim and depart justice.
Right To Fight
The Dubai Frame is a standing example of intellectual theft, according to the architect’s claim, and the world should know about it. The Frame entails the story of the past city of Dubai on the ground floor of the museum and the elevator to the 48th floor gives a spectacular view of the old and new city of Dubai. The view includes landmarks like the historic Dubai Creek and, the Old City of Deira as the old Dubai to the north. On the other side, visitors can see skyscrapers like Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Marina, etc. towards the South. Capturing the evolution of Dubai in one building within different frames is a marvellous accomplishment by the architect.
The Dubai Frames‘s rectangular design was inspired by the golden ratio of 1.618 which is to be believed to form a structurally balanced building. The frame has 48 floors in total, and it takes 75 seconds for the elevator to reach the topmost level. Some construction facts say that over 9900 cubic metres of reinforced concrete, 2000 tonnes of steel, and 2,900 square metres of laminated glass were used. More than 15,000 square metres of gold-coloured stainless steel cover the Dubai frame that incorporated a ring design inspired by the Expo 2020 Dubai logo. Originally not intended by the architect as he kept the frame plain in white colour.
Dubai is getting all the benefits of this Frame, tourism, world recognition, revenue generation, etc., and the Mexican architect Fernando Donis has to fight to claim that it was his creation. Is it justified? No, right? Be cautious and careful. Fight for your rights until you get it. It’s better to fight instead of being silent. You have to make noise or no one will ever listen to you. It is one of each individual who makes the society. People should be aware and show non-acceptance of such practices that are harming the professionals and the industry. Every industry has its challenges and it’s our duty to overcome all the challenges in a justified manner to maintain the trust people have in the system.
Reference:
Allplan.com (2019). The Dubai Frame. [online]. Available at: https://www.allplan.com/blog/the-dubai-frame/ [Accessed 20 Oct 2024].
Dubai Municipality (2021). Dubai Frame. [online]. Available at: https://www.dubaiframe.ae/en/about-us. [Accessed 20 Oct 2024].
Sarah Jain (2023). Dubai Frame bridging the past and future in architectural marvel [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/@sarahjain1705/dubai-frame-bridging-the-past-and-future-in-architectural-marvel-ded22bed339c. [Accessed 20 Oct 2024].
