The 11th Circuit decided only a few copyright cases in 2008, but two of them, Oravec v. Sunny Isles Luxury Ventures, L.C., 527 F.3d 1218 (11th Cir. 2008), and Intervest Constr., Inc. v. Canterbury Estate Homes, Inc., 554 F.3d 914 (11th Cir. 2008), (1) are particularly worthy of note for the copyright practitioner. Both cases arise from Florida district court proceedings, each contributing to the developing law concerning the protection of architectural works, each applying an especial rigor to the issue of substantial similarity, and each suggesting that the 11th Circuit has adopted a new posture toward summary judgment on the issue of noninfringement--one far less favorable to the plaintiff than the standard traditionally employed in such cases. Oravec and Intervest both concern the extent of protection for works of architecture. In 1990, Congress created a new category of copyrightable subject matter: "architectural works," a term defined by 17 U.S.C. [section] 102(a)(8). (2) Before this amendment was adopted, the Copyright Act provided little protection to the creator of expressive architectural structures, leaving the creator with no remedy for even direct copying of original designs unless the copier could be shown to have actually copied the creator's copyrighted drawings. Such drawings were protectable as "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works" under 17 U.S.C. [section] 102(a)(5). But after the law changed, an architect or other designer could seek protection of architectural designs in two ways: through registration of the creator's drawings in the usual way as "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works," sometimes (and hereafter) called PGS for short, or through registration of the building designs, in the form of three-dimensional models, for example, as an "architectural work," under the new [section] 102(a)(8), or by pursuing both forms of registration.
