In fact, buildings that look alike have never been in short supply around us. Chinese projects imitate foreign ones, and southern projects learn from northern ones; borrowing is everywhere, and it has become a common phenomenon. One development in Shenzhen even copied the planning layout and architectural forms of the European town of Portofino wholesale, not even sparing its name. Nor is that all: the Water Cube, the Bird's Nest, and the Expo pavilions have all been targets of copycats.

Nevertheless, this case has indeed drawn attention once again to the old topic of architectural plagiarism. In fact, in the field of architectural design, designers' copyrights often go unprotected. The reason is that when real estate developers and designers sign contracts for architectural design, most companies stipulate in the contract that after paying the design fee, the company alone or jointly with the designer owns the copyright to the design drawings. In such cases, the designer's drawings may be used by other real estate developers, but the drawings are very likely to have been provided by the company that signed the agreement, making it very difficult for the designer to defend their rights.

Some experts point out that allowing copyright to be disregarded has become an unspoken rule in the architectural design world, and this unspoken rule is determined by the particular nature of the construction industry. In architectural design, the exterior forms designers can refer to are actually very limited, because the forms nature can provide are also very limited.

There are three main types of protected rights in the field of intellectual property: copyright, patent rights, and trademark rights. It is legally difficult to define suspected architectural plagiarism, and given that China's protection of intellectual property in urban planning and architectural design is not yet fully developed, it is very hard to claim originality in the public domain, especially for the exterior appearance of buildings, unless an exclusive patent has been applied for.

Of course, copying also varies in quality. Master designers copy cleverly, which can also be called innovative borrowing or critical inheritance; those less skilled may copy others' flaws along with everything else. As for copying by peers, some of those copied choose to turn a blind eye, while others take the high road. For example, Lianju, a Taiwanese developer specializing in luxury homes, once declared, "If our peers are willing to imitate Lianju's buildings, I hope they copy them well!"

Of course, architectural design is a spatial art and a creative endeavor. Although the room for innovation in architectural design is limited today, large-scale imitation and wholesale copying will greatly reduce its artistic value and leave the field of architectural design stagnant, causing fatal harm to the discipline.