Web

[CHADS]

Hi im just wondering if i had a design for a web site could i copyright or patent the design so no one could use that style ......... im not a web designer but have come up with a few ideas with freinds about new web page lay outs ... i suppose it would have to differ greatly from the web layouts there are around today .... but i think it would qualify for a design patent .....................

i have browsed over the patent office classifications but i couldnt find out what classification such ideas would come under .. IF ANY AT ALL ...

:(

[CraigD]

Hi im just wondering if i had a design for a web site could i copyright or patent the design so no one could use that style…

Yes, you can.

 

Perhaps the most famous website design-related patent is Amazon’s 1998 “Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network", better know as “1 click to purchase” or “the Amazon 1-click”, in which Amazon laid claim to the idea of a “click here to buy” button or link in any website.

 

That said, if you’re considering engaging in a life of intellectual property wrangling, you’d best consider at least a few of the following

• Is if ethically right to patent an idea that isn’t hard to invent, or may have already been invented, but not patented?
  
• Are you comfortable with working with patent lawyers, and all of the rest of the apparatus of patent law?
  
• Can you afford working with patent lawyers, and all of the rest of the apparatus of patent law?
  
• If, in the popular internet’s infancy, the CERN folk who invented it had not declared it “free to everyone” (public domain), but had, as they were entitled, patented it, would the world be a better place today?
  
• What is the meaning of the informal motto ”don’t be evil”, embraced by such companies as Google.
  
• Should you embrace it?
  

[cwes99_03]

I think a bit more info needs to be said here. The patentable options on the website can be done. The DNS can be registered as yours. But simply how to place buttons, where to, and what colors to use aren't.

Then once you patent it, it will come down to protecting your patent. How are you going to search the internet for every possible page that might use your idea? I guess if it is a huge idea, you only need paruse the biggest sites that are most likely to use your idea.

Google, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all have patents on some of their code and scripting, but this is not a website design, it is the backend servers.

[Buffy]

There are lots of ways to invalidate a patent, and not enough of them have ever really reached the courts, where a lot of us are expecting a bloodbath of invalidations over the next few years.

 

How to break a patent:

• Argue its not "novel". The Amazon One-click has never really been challenged, and the fact that Amazon has only tried to defend it a couple of times indicates that if they tried to take on a big enough challenger, they'd probably lose on this point. Make a charge based on pre-stored information? Visa (as Bank of America) and American Express and Diner's Club (the original) were doing this 30 years before the Internet was invented. "Obviousness" is a real weakness with a lot of software patents.
  
• Prior art. Are you SURE no one has ever done a web site that looks like that? the waybackmachine.org has quite a memory and without some hefty research, you could get hit out of no where from someone who would claim you copied them (see below).
  
• Usefulness. This is a wierd one, but sometimes people have successfully argued that an existing patent is "not useful for anything" in order to get free access to it...
  
• Time cures everything. If you're a little guy and someone big wants your patent, the best thing for them to do is to tie you in legal knots until your 17 years of exclusivity times out. Don't think this is silly: It happened to the Wright Brothers and Philo T. Farnsworth, among many other famous folks.
  

Copyright is a better bet, since its easy to claim, does not require a lot of upfront expense, but you can be screwed if someone turns up who created it before you.

 

Not easy, but maybe its worth it. You decide.

 

Legally blonde,

Buffy

[Jules Grimm]

I definitely agree that copyright is the way to go as opposed to patents, but...

 

Unfortunately the design of a web site is a lot harder to copyright than the actual content of that site because infringement can vary from site to site. If

you are going to enforce copyright then you need to work out how strict you are going to be about it. People can sometimes create very similar sites without being aware that they are infringing on copyright.

 

My suggestion is to build in a few pieces into the source code that are obviously your work, like working your name in somewhere. This can help you to identify if someone has blatantly copied and pasted your work of if the resemblance is accidental. It's obviously not foolroof, but it might help in the most blatant cases. I was discussing this in the Creatasite forum if you want more detailed advice from more professional people. (sorry i'm not sure if i'm allowed to say that or not so if its wrong then please remove it)

 

Sorry i cant give better advice, but haven't coded in a while - i just provide the content for the sites and let other people cope with the design aspects.

[alexander]

Hi im just wondering if i had a design for a web site could i copyright or patent the design so no one could use that style

no, you can copyright or better yet creative commons, the content, you may do the same with the exact design, but you cant do it for every element, nor would it stop people from copying good ideas in their own ways anyways... you could also copyright the code, but that's dumb as well... seriously, why are you having these microsoft-like thoughts, can i patent the way i tie my shoes in the morning or how i dressed today, so you cant wear a shirt over a teeshirt... does it make sense to do it?

[CHADS]

well this story will probably bore you but anyway .......

I bought flowers for my girlfriend from a florists and payed more for them to be sent early ..... anyway i waited in the morning hoping they would come before she left shopping ..... alas they came at 4 30pm and they looked second hand .

this perplexed me as id never spent a lot of money on flowers before and was struck by a feeling of unluckyness.... I Then realised that every body is out to make money out of people , every service and shop is adding more and more to price goods , even dentists will try and bankrupt you to take a tooth out ..... i think at that moment i realised the ruthlessness of buisness for the first time and it stunk like second hand flowers which id overpayed a middle man for. If you have a good idea that can make money , thousands of people will try and make money from it with the same ruthlessness that corrupts consumer confidence .... i also bought a computer game from a shop that refuses refund if the specs on the game arnt compatible with the computer ..... i read the specs it would work ... i bought it ... downloaded it and read the booklet in side ..... it would not work and the specs inside the booklet differed greatly from the specs advertised on the outside cover .

This Corruption of consumer confidence is exactly why that if you believe in an idea strongly enough then patent or copyright it , before some greedy weasel turns it into a complete and utter joke shop ... this is what made me think a bit microsoftish :cocktail: