You’ve worked really hard to build a unique website for your business, create a great online marketplace, or launch a mobile app to make your customer’s life easier. And like many business owners, you want to make sure that others won’t just blatantly copy your hard work.

Websites and mobile apps are made up of various components, so in protecting your work, here are those you need to keep in mind:

1) The code used to run the website or app

2) A visual layout, or design element, and

3) Content within the site or app, whether it be text, images, video and/or audio.

In order to protect your website or mobile application’s intellectual property, you first need to figure out what your unique and novel selling point is.

Protecting the software used in your site or app

Software is a crowded field for patents, and while it has gotten more difficult in the past few years to secure a solid patent, patents still remain the best way to protect your software work.  As long as there is an innovative, novel, and non-obvious process taking place in your site or app, and providing the software can be tied to hardware, you should be able to protect those novelty points through a patent.

This means that combining a few processes that already exist in a simple manner might not be enough for you to secure a patent for this site or app.  I am emphasizing this fact because more often than not, many patent applicants get rejected because they believe that they have a unique invention on their hands, only to find out that what they’re setting out to do already exists.  Do your research and make sure to talk to a patent professional about the patentability of your website or app before starting the patent application process.

Protecting your website or mobile app layout and Graphic User Interface (GUI)

  • You actually own the design, layout, or GUI

In designing and building your website, the first thing to be aware of is whether you own the website presentation, content, and every aspect of intellectual property within it.

You may not, and that’s okay. All you need to know is what you own, what you have the rights to use, and what you don’t have the rights to use. If you are using a consultant or company to design your website, make sure you understand the provisions in the agreement concerning ownership and Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Who owns the website design and text? What obligations does the company have to ensure that it doesn’t use any IP that belongs to a third party in the course of its work?

If you are using a database, e-commerce system, search engine, or any other technical Internet tools licensed to you by another company, check the terms in the license agreement to see who owns the system. Make sure that you have a written agreement, and get it reviewed by an attorney before you sign it and before any design, custom work, or installation of the website begins.

You will need written permission (also referred to as a license, a consent, or an agreement) to use any photos, videos, music, voices, art work, or software that belongs to someone else. Just because you get material on the Internet does not mean it is in the public domain. You may have to pay for permission to use these materials. In many countries, you will need to communicate with a collecting society or association of artists in order to get permission.

  • Using design patents to protect your layout and GUI

Assuming you came up with the design or GUI, or own the rights to the design, Design Patent is a great tool to protect your Graphic User Interface (GUI) or layout.  In the past, design patents were thought to be tremendously weak and not worthwhile unless obtained in bulk, but all of that changed when the Federal Circuit issued its decision in the Egyptian Goddess case. The Federal Circuit changed the design patent infringement test from one that focused only on whether the accused infringer copied the novel aspects of the design to a test that looks at the totality of the design and the totality of the accused infringing product. That being the case, it is now much easier to prove design patent infringement and design patents should be in every patent portfolio.

And if Google is spending time and money to protect their very basic GUI and layout through design patents, you should probably think about doing the same if your design is unique.

Design patents are cheaper to obtain than their counterparts, typically costing around $3,000 from start to finish. Design patents can typically be obtained in 8 to 9 months if expedited, and are now formidable rights thanks to the Federal Circuit Egyptian Goddess ruling. Obtaining a design patent is an economical way to ward off competition and plagiarists. If you design website templates or WordPress templates, you should consider obtaining design patents on your designs in order to protect them.

However, while design patents are usually easier and less costly to obtain, they also provide substantially less protection than a utility patent. They are relatively easier to get around than utility patents, and may not provide the amount of protection desired.

  • Using Copyright law to protect the visual aspect of your website or app

Copyrights are a great way to protect all of the content on your website, including the source code. By default, the creator of a work automatically owns the copyright, but it is also a good idea to gain additional protection by registering the copyright with the US copyright office. Moreover, unlike patents which only last 20 years, copyrights last 70 years past the death of the owner. If the owner is a company like an LLC or corporation which never dies, the copyright can last forever.

Protecting your website or mobile app’s content with Copyright Registrations

Things such as your site’s content (whether it’s the images, sounds, written material, etc.), your code (both source and object), or any other documents you have on the site are all protectable under copyright law.  You automatically own the copyright of any original expression of an idea in a fixed, tangible format (i.e. once you “put pen to paper”). Nothing else needs to be done for you to own this copyright, though it’s not a bad idea to put a “©” on your site to put the public on notice of your copyright on the materials. You can also register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright office—this is completely voluntary and not required, though it does provide you with some benefits, especially if a dispute arises down the road.

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Photo by William Iven on Unsplash