copyright infringement question

Chipp Walters chipp at chipp.com
Wed Apr 16 01:55:08 EDT 2008


I agree with Richard. Many times I've had a client come to me and say they
want to build an application which does such and such like this app, but in
addition other stuff like this other app. If one couldn't look at
competitors products, then we would have exactly one word processor, one
spreadsheet, one browser, one email client...you get the idea.

IMO, as long as the look and feel and workflow is substantially different,
you can create competitive products without issue. The problem can come (and
not necessarily WILL COME) when you copy verbatim another products features
in such a way it's a clear clone of the first product. Though, Open Office
sure gets away with it.

I'm not a lawyer either, but I have paid lots of $$$ to many lawyers who
will always CYA by telling you not to do this or that. It's not nearly as
clear cut. Frankly, if you hire the right software designer, they should be
able to work with you to come up with a superior product than your
competition.

And my opinion of this notion of 'create something original' is just BS.
First of all, it's difficult if not impossible to create an idea which has
not manifested itself in some form in the past. Second, it takes a
tremendous amount of money to create a new and novel market and explain your
product to its customers. Google products aren't original, neither are
Apple's or Microsoft's. iTunes isn't original, nor are any of Apple's apps.
All of them had been done before. And if you think Apple didn't look at
other video editors when it created it's own, then you're smoking more than
just one of Jerry's cigars!

Everytime, EVERYTIME I design a product, whether software or hardware, we
always go through a competitive audit with our client. It's mandatory and it
happens in every Fortune 500 and smaller companies I've ever done business
with-- and it's a lot of them.

best,

Chipp



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