Legal Guide to Social Media: Rights and Risks for Businesses and Entrepreneurs by Kimberly A. Houser

Author:Kimberly A. Houser [Houser, Kimberly A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781621533887
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: 2013-11-13T05:00:00+00:00

7.3 WHAT DO I DO IF SOMEONE COPIES THE LOOK AND FEEL OF MY WEBSITE?

Because there are so many form websites out there, many websites do in fact look similar. A copyright infringement issue arises when you create (or contract with someone to create) a unique web design with unique features that is copied by someone else. Remember that before you can bring a suit in federal court, you must register your copyright. By registering your website with the Copyright Office, you will have protection for the exact pages registered. The issue becomes whether your website was actually copied. While some courts easily find that any website is accessible to anyone else, others have required a showing that the infringer actually viewed and copied the website. The easiest way to show that copying did occur is by showing that the source code for the two websites is identical. As you can imagine, this situation usually is a result of contracting out your web design. Unless you specifically spell out in a written agreement that you own the web design, the entity that created your website will own the copyright to the design and have the right to use it for someone else.

There have been some who have made a claim for trade dress infringement, indicating that the “look and feel” of a website is actually trade dress. In Blue Nile, Inc. v. Ice.com, Inc.,216 Blue Nile sued Ice.com for copying the overall “look and feel” of its jewelry website. After the court denied Ice.com’s motion to dismiss and ruled that a claim for trade dress infringement based on the look and feel of the website could proceed, the parties settled. Although the exact nature of this claim has yet to be resolved, it does seem that, since a website can be copyright protected and the appearance of a website would seem to fall under trade dress, claims such as these may be brought.

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