Building Information Modelling: Its impact on design liability, insurance and intellectual property rights

Lesley Currie

May 2014

A paper based on the highly commended entry in the Hudson Prize essay competition 2013

The UK Government has called for the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) at Level 2 on all publicly procured projects by 2016. There is therefore a need to define what BIM is and to establish the impact that the advent of BIM will have on the construction industry and the legal matrix of construction projects. Through a review of current market standard practices, standard form contracts and the literature surrounding BIM, this paper addresses the impact of BIM on three key legal areas: design liability, insurance (in particular professional indemnity insurance) and the ownership of intellectual property rights in both the individual contributions to the BIM Model and the BIM Model itself.

Introduction - Design liability - Insurance - Intellectual property - Conclusions.

The author: Lesley Currie is an Assistant Managing Solicitor in the Projects department, Renfrewshire Council, Scotland.

Text: 15 pages (including appendix).