Are UIs copyrighted?

Question

Is it legal to more or less "copy" (or euphemistically, be very "inspired by") the idea and UI of a copyrighted program? This question popped in my mind when looking at "Things" which is a Mac-only program.

How legal would it be for someone to make a Windows version of this program with a basically identical UI design and feature set? Where are the legal boundaries of what counts as copyright infringement?

Unless you specify otherwise, I am assuming an "IANAL" for any answer, so you don't have to write that. ;)

Answer 1

Specific elements of a design can be copyrighted. Apple won the "trashcan" icon, but effectively nothing else during the Microsoft/Apple lawsuit over a look and feel. As long as the code is entirely your own, the graphics are your own (and yes, copying too closely a specific graphic element like the trashcan can be a problem) and you aren't doing cloning elements that are trademark/tradedress related, you should be within the law (in the US).

Of course, that doesn't mean that someone can't sue you. Meritless lawsuits are started all the time for intimidation. Also note that patents can cover the interaction of the user with a UI, so copyright might not be your primary problem in some cases.

Answer 2

I think in general the answer is no, it would not be illegal. Apple tried to sue Microsoft for stealing the "look and feel" of Mac OS, and lost... There are lots of linux programs, which copy the UI of similar windows programs almost exactly...

Answer 3

In software, copyright covers the code itself and things like text content or images. The issue you should be worried about is not copyright or trademarks, but patents. Copying the general design and feature set may run afoul any patents they have filed. Although it is unlikely that a small company would have filed enough patents to really get in the way of making a Windows or Linux clone.

Answer 4

Read up on Apple vs. Microsoft. A UI is copyrightable as long as it is not the only way such an interface could possibly be created. By the way, Apple vs. Microsoft is not exactly a great way to judge this, because Microsoft had already licensed a large portion of the UI from Apple:

Apple came up with a list of 189 GUI elements; the judge decided that 179 of these elements had been licensed to Microsoft in the Windows 1.0 agreement, and most of the remaining 10 elements were not copyrightable—either they were unoriginal to Apple, or they were the only possible way of expressing a particular idea.

Even if it is not illegal, it is certainly unethical.

Answer 5

Read this blog entry from the main LLBLGen application developer. Although Microsoft strictly does not copyright its license, it uses legal means to protect their innovation/evolution in this particular UI element.

Answer 6

I may be showing my age here.

There is a lot of gray area, but the term "Look and Feel" pretty much originated from a lawsuit.

Look and feel lawsuit

Answer 7

If you are looking for design inspiration, and are not trying to use existing bitmaps, you're probably okay. But there may be design patent and trademark issues that protect a particular product from bring confused by a "copy". There may also be specific patents that protect the way the software works.

There's a practical aspect here -- if you are writing something that is "small fries" to the owner of the (ahem) inspiring work, you'll never have to worry about it. But if your business depends on it, you probably should be consulting a lawyer...