Kudos to CB Insights for doing exactly that. Not only will it make the copying more trouble than it was worth to Techlist, but the threat of public embarrassment will help deter copycats in the future.
Kudos to CB Insights for doing exactly that. Not only will it make the copying more trouble than it was worth to Techlist, but the threat of public embarrassment will help deter copycats in the future.
http://adlervermillion.com/user-interface-design-patents/
Not every lawyer knows/understands IP and user interface design. But if you find a lawyer who specializes in the two, and you lay the groundwork before your design is copied, you should have a strong legal position when the copycats arrive.
For an early-stage startup, it may not make sense to sink a ton of $$ into design patents. But companies with more revenue/capital should think about it.
But you are right, it ui is patentable.
It's very difficult to patent a software interface design as you have to prove a lack of existence of prior art and the patent must describe the specifics of what you are patenting.
These days there's very little new under the sun. I don't see anything remarkably unique about that particular interface. I'm certainly not saying that it wasn't lifted by their competitor, but that analytics dash also bares a striking resemblance to Google Analytics and a host of others, not to mention Microsoft Excel. Okay, it's blue and has large Helvetica numbers- is that what you're going to patent? Okay, I'll change mine to a green color scheme with Arial fonts. Your patent is no longer enforceable, and your IP attorneys who tend to be paid quite well will charge you tens of thousands of dollars to prove that.
I can imagine it feels like a major violation and annoying to be ripped off, and I don't condone that strategy, but I doubt that CB's competitive advantage is a color scheme and some data labels. A design patent would have basically no value in this scenario.
Really? Isn't there any IP protection for a websites look-and-feel? Need some lawyers to opine on this.
There is an argument that the failure of copyright protection excel-erated (pun) patenting of processes centered on software ux.