Within Toronto’s Big Bear Park stands a nearly 10-metre-tall sculpture of a female bear resembling the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Titled “Seated Bear and Friends,” the bronze and granite sculpture was created by Haida First Nation artist Dean Drever.
However, while this sculpture is credited to Drever, another person claims an instrumental role in its design and creation. Artist David Blackmore, who is suing Drever for $1 million in damages for copyright and moral rights infringement, discussed the process of creating the “Seated Bear and Friends” sculpture in an interview with the Toronto Star. According to the interview, Blackmore’s role was to create the sculpture itself from scratch, while the concept came from Drever.
Additionally, both Blackmore and Drever have made multiple agreements on terms through emails and texts, including the compensation that Blackmore would receive. However, no formal contracts were signed; even when Blackmore would present one, it wasn’t signed by Drever. In addition, the exact terms of their agreements were not explicitly stated in their correspondence.
Maya, a Business and Society student, explains the importance of having a formal contract, as they depict “who owns what or how much of something somebody owns.” Only using emails involves a different standard of proof, and a contract “can be very, very clear what happened and what didn’t happen.”
Drever’s contribution to the project was the concept, rather than the physical creation of the sculpture. Noah, a JD and MBA student at Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business, describes the difficulties that can arise for Drever’s defence. As ownership cannot be claimed over a project’s planning and ideas, “for something to be intellectual property, it has to be fixed into an actual tangible thing.” Noah further explains the importance of turning ideas into tangible works, as “the ideas in planning themselves cannot be defended.”
As the lawsuit concerns a public art sculpture, Excalibur has reached out to the City of Toronto for comment. However, the City states it “has no comment regarding this lawsuit between private parties.” At the time of writing, Drever has not responded to the lawsuit, which, according to Blackmore’s lawyer Paul E. Bain, could result in a default judgment being issued and enforced.
Very interesting