The Origami Forum

Okay, so I'm writing a book, and it'll consist of only plant (more specifically, flower) models that I created and diagrammed myself. My models have so far been fairly complex and unique, but when it comes down to developing leaves for each model, I've found that simple is sometimes better. The problem, though, is that some of these leaves are ridiculously simple, like only a couple steps. I want to include simple leaf models for the benefit of the folder to make as realistic plants as possible, but obviously with a simple model, there is the concern that it has already been done somewhere. Of course I don't want to infringe on protected material, but how would I ever know if it was? I have searched many online sources for simple and/or traditional models, but I can't search everywhere, and I haven't searched through books at all. Of the leaf diagrams I have seen, the author usually has some sort of uniqueness that makes it his or her own. So... I have to wonder. Are overly simple models fair game? Or are my concerns justified? I mean in the case of leaves, many people probably independently fold the same models, so I'm not really sure what to do. Does anyone have advice?

This should fall under independent discovery and shouldn't lead to problems.

Ah, thank you, that makes things easy. I don't know a lot about this stuff. When I tried to research it myself I only saw things related to independently diagramming a model that you already know about, but nothing about models that aren't known beforehand or independent discovery.

A laywer would say to always be concerned, but check with your publisher, they should be able to give guidance.

Another solution would be to post a photo of the one's you're most worried about-- but generally, independent discovery happens all the time, and it's fair game from a legal perspective. If you're still really worried about it, post a photo and ask people if it's been done before.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I don't think I'll worry too much about it anymore. I don't think my main concern is whether or not it's been done (since a 2-3 fold leaf probably has been done many times before), but whether or not it's fair to use such a common sense diagram. Based on your opinions, it sounds like anything that is so easy that anyone could do it is fair game, and that's all I wanted to know. I know at least in the literary world, common sense facts and phrases can't really be copyrighted and don't need citations.

While I'm thinking about it, I'll just explain an example rather than posting pictures. Some of my flowers are rather small, and so the calyx has to be tiny. I can't fold a complicated calyx that is only 1 to 2 centimeters wide, so I decided the intermediate step between the square base and the frog base would suffice. I thought that it must be a traditional base itself, but I didn't find anything about it except on the Shumakovs' website who named it themselves as the fruit base since they use it for some plants. As for anyone else using it as a calyx or even small filler flowers like baby's breath, I have no idea, but it seems as though a model that's between a traditional base and another traditional base would be fair game.