Dan Kent, a 1986 Grace College graduate and son of Homer Kent Jr., former president of Grace College and Seminary, is representing Jeehoon Park, a Korean-born architect who has sued a major architecture firm over the design of Manhattan’s One World Trade Center. Kent is quoted in a U.S. News and World Report story about the suit. Kent is a partner at Kent & Risley, an intellectual property law firm in Alpharetta, Ga. A portion of the U.S. News story appears below. Click here for the complete article.
Architect Claims NY’s One World Trade Center Stole His Design
A Korean-born architect on Wednesday sued a major architecture firm over the design of Manhattan’s One World Trade Center, claiming that the building bears a “striking similarity” to a tower he designed in 1999 while in graduate school.
Jeehoon Park accused Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of falsely claiming design credit for the 104-story One World Trade Center, whose 1,776-foot (541 m) height including the spire makes it the Western Hemisphere’s tallest building.
Now president of Qube Architecture LLC in Suwanee, Georgia, Park said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, that One World Trade Center, which opened in November 2014, copies his 122-story “Cityfront ’99,” whose cross-sections also feature narrow upright and inverted triangle shapes.
Park, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said he registered Cityfront ’99 with the U.S. Copyright Office on May 9.
He is seeking unspecified damages, including for alleged harm to his architectural practice, plus credit for the design he said inspired One World Trade Center. …
“He just wants to be treated fairly,” Dan Kent, a lawyer for Park, said.
“Our client frankly didn’t know what his legal rights were until he came to us,” Kent added. “We believe we are well within any statutes of limitations, and that the wrongful conduct is ongoing.”
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