Designer Lee Kun-dao (李昆道) accused the Taipei City Government yesterday of stealing his award-winning design for new streetlights being installed to promote the International Flora Expo and threatened to sue the city if it fails to remove the lights within a month.
Streetlights installed on 10 roads leading to expo sites are white with four steel poles and bird-shaped LED lights. The streetlights — their appearance and the height of the base to the location of the maintenance box — are exactly the same as his design, Lee said.
Showing a copy of his design, which won a silver medal at a streetlight design competition held by the Taichung City Government six years ago, Lee said he first noticed the new lights in February, shortly after they were installed.
PHOTO: CHEN CHING-MIN, TAIPEI TIMES
“As the government of the nation’s capital, the Taipei City Government should know better than to steal others’ creativity and copy my design,” he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) and Huang Hsian-chun (黃向群) went with Lee yesterday to see the lights erected in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial on Zhongshan S Road.
They accused the city’s Park and Street Light Office of violating the Copyright Law (著作權法).
“These streetlights cost the city government NT$53 million [US$1.6 million], and it turns out that it copied Mr Lee’s design. Not only has the city government wasted money, but it has set a very bad example,” Chuang said.
Wang Tung-liang (王棟樑), chief of the streetlight division, however, rejected Lee’s claim, saying the division was not aware of Lee’s design and had used streetlights on the No. 5 Freeway and Jijin Road in Taipei County as inspirations.
“Taipei County streetlights were our reference. I don’t think there’s much of a style difference in streetlights around the world. The function of a streetlight is to provide light. We weren’t very interested in the design,” he said.
Lee said Wang was refusing to acknowledge his division’s violation of the copyright law. He said he would sue the city unless the lights were removed.
“Apparently the streetlight division and the city government do not respect copyrights and assume it is OK to steal others’ designs. I will not let them get away with it,” he said.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) refused to comment on the issue, except to say he would try to learn more about it.
The International Flora Expo will open on Nov. 6 and run through to April 25 next year.
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