Protection for Building Plans when sharing

[Dalton Dillon]

How are your building plans protected for new construction when shopping around for quotes from General Contractors? I'm currently in the process of building 2 new SFH in the Houston suburbs. We've been met with a few hurdles; one being staying on budget. My current GC has quoted me roughly 10$ over his original price per sqft from when discussions first began. He suggested shopping around with other GC's to see if they could beat the numbers he was getting. I have another GC in mind from a friend who is also an investor. This other GC of course needs to see the full set of plans to give me an accurate quote. I'm concerned now and for the future loosely sharing plans that have costed me and my partners a good amount of money. Does my LLC name being attached to the plans protect them from being utilized by other builders/investors/Contractors? Am I overthinking this?

[Bryant Brislin]

You're probably overthinking it.  And usually the architect technically has a license on that material, I believe.  Those plans are specifically for your site, but I guess the worst that can happen is they copy your ideas for the floorplans, elevations, etc, but I think most GC's are too busy for all that.