The authors' rights of the architects of Prague Airport were violated

Prague - The authors' rights of the Ruzyně Airport project, Michal Brix and Petr Franta, were violated, the Municipal Court in Prague decided on Thursday. However, the court dismissed their lawsuit, stating they filed it too late. The authors of the original project sued the Czech Airports Administration (now Prague Airport) and the Nikodem & Partner office.
    According to Judge Martin Valehracha, the lawsuit against the airport was justified. "The Czech Airports Administration violated the law by failing to pay them a fee. But this is already time-barred," stated the judge.
    As reported by the server, the limitation period in this case is three years from the moment they became aware of the violation of their rights - however, the architects missed it by nearly a month, according to the judge. Instead of receiving several million in compensation and an apology, Franta and Brix must pay over a quarter of a million crowns in court costs and the opponents' attorneys' fees.
    The dispute dates back to the mid-1990s when the Development Department of the capital city, in cooperation with the Czech Airports Administration, announced an architectural competition for the new terminal project. The authors Brix and Franta won the competition. The architectural office received several prestigious awards for the new terminal plans. Their names appear on the plans, but part of the actual terminal lists Nikodem & Partner as the creator.
    Due to the construction of the airport while in operation, only part of the new terminal was built in the first phase - the check-in hall, one of the two "fingers," and part of the second finger of the terminal. The remaining part of "finger B" was constructed later, when forecasts of an increase in the number of passengers were realized.
    Even though the complete project was already available from Brix and Franta, the rest was "designed" by the Nikodem & Partner office, and this was done without a competition. The original plans by Franta and Brix were handed over as a basis. "It's all our know-how; they just copied it from the digital record," Franta told the server.
    Airport spokeswoman Michaela Lagronová informed the server that the court dismissed the lawsuit in full, affirming that Prague Airport did not violate any authors' rights or contractual agreements.
    Brix and Franta also sued their competitors, but the court found that they did not commit any wrongdoing. According to Judge Valehracha, they were merely working with the plans they received. Furthermore, it cannot be said that Nikodem & Partner merely slavishly copied competitive plans, the judge noted. The professional Czech Chamber of Architects held an opposite view than the court. Its professional court concluded that the then head of the architectural studio, Alois Nikodem, was at fault.
    Brix and Franta are still uncertain whether they will appeal the ruling. They will wait for the written explanation. However, they protest against missing the limitation period. The court stated that it began running from the day they found out that construction would continue without them.