Discussion
something unbelievable has just happened. about two months ago we had an enquiry from a guy in america who wanted us to photograph his wedding in california. to cut a long story short, it turns out he is a wedding photographer too. He has copied our ENTIRE website to his own. Literally - same text, same design style, same logo style, same packages - EVERYTHING!
have a look
this is our website - www.pr-weddings.org (been up for two years)
this is his - www.infocus-video.com (been up since january)
advice and thoughts needed please (but we are speaking to lawyers today)
have a look
this is our website - www.pr-weddings.org (been up for two years)
this is his - www.infocus-video.com (been up since january)
advice and thoughts needed please (but we are speaking to lawyers today)
OMG indeed! It is quite clearly a copy. I was a member of a freelancer site and there were numerous requests from clients to create clones of existing sites.
Was your site a custom development for you, i.e. you hired a developer and gave them a brief? If it was a template that was bought in then I doubt you'd have much of a leg to stand on.
If you are still in contact with the original developer of your site then you could perhaps ask them if they have been approached by this other company.
Good luck with the suits today!
Phil
Was your site a custom development for you, i.e. you hired a developer and gave them a brief? If it was a template that was bought in then I doubt you'd have much of a leg to stand on.
If you are still in contact with the original developer of your site then you could perhaps ask them if they have been approached by this other company.
Good luck with the suits today!
Phil
Cheeky bugger,
I fear there is little you are going to be able to do about this. From a business point of view I doubt it will affect you at all. However there is the galling fact that you have had the design done (unless it is from a common template) and he has just taken the basic idea and tweaked it a bit.
I'd drop him an email and say you think there might be a copyright issue (which might be tricky as you have no copyright statement on your site) and see what he says. The least he should do is a site credit to you.
The internet is full of sites which look very alike, we get asked to make sites look like other ones (not that we do but it is easy to take design hints from them).
Or you could always just take it as a compliment....
D
I fear there is little you are going to be able to do about this. From a business point of view I doubt it will affect you at all. However there is the galling fact that you have had the design done (unless it is from a common template) and he has just taken the basic idea and tweaked it a bit.
I'd drop him an email and say you think there might be a copyright issue (which might be tricky as you have no copyright statement on your site) and see what he says. The least he should do is a site credit to you.
The internet is full of sites which look very alike, we get asked to make sites look like other ones (not that we do but it is easy to take design hints from them).
Or you could always just take it as a compliment....
D
The main area of contention would be if he was claiiming your business was his, or he was using his web address to deflect potential customers from your site to his.
If he was stealing business from you you might be able to get an injunction forcing him to change - although injunctions are virtually impossible to enforce over international boundaries.
If he was stealing business from you you might be able to get an injunction forcing him to change - although injunctions are virtually impossible to enforce over international boundaries.
I have to agree, galling as it may be, he is not trying to pass himself off as you, merely copied layout and style. Obviously if he had used your pics or exact graphics then that would be a different matter, but I am not sure you can really have a copyright on a layout. A stern threatening email cannot hurt and at least the guy knows you are onto him, but I would not neccesarily waste your time taking it much further.
For what it's worth, your site still manages to look contemporary and modern whereas his looks like it from the 80's.
For what it's worth, your site still manages to look contemporary and modern whereas his looks like it from the 80's.
Ha ha!
In a similar vein, my sister-in-law is an intellectual property lawyer and her senior partner is well known in that field and has his own website.
Imagine his suprise when an IP lawyer in South America completely ripped off his site, complete in every detail (except contact numbers and address) including his photograph! Ironic in the extreme...
In a similar vein, my sister-in-law is an intellectual property lawyer and her senior partner is well known in that field and has his own website.
Imagine his suprise when an IP lawyer in South America completely ripped off his site, complete in every detail (except contact numbers and address) including his photograph! Ironic in the extreme...
but I guess that's the American wedding market for you, though 
thanks for the replies so far guys. i've just been speaking to our lawyers here, they said what i feared - probably not worth going to court, and even if you did, it would be difficult to enforce a judgement.
the designer is a buiness partner of mine and i know he didn't sell the template - I seriously hope he would have made a better site than that anyway if he did! as a note on the copyright, it doesn't matter that there is no notice on the site, copyright is automatic on anything and everything that you create unless specified otherwise.
now i'm going to get in contact with a lawyer in america...
the designer is a buiness partner of mine and i know he didn't sell the template - I seriously hope he would have made a better site than that anyway if he did! as a note on the copyright, it doesn't matter that there is no notice on the site, copyright is automatic on anything and everything that you create unless specified otherwise.
now i'm going to get in contact with a lawyer in america...
dcw@pr said:
thanks for the replies so far guys. i've just been speaking to our lawyers here, they said what i feared - probably not worth going to court, and even if you did, it would be difficult to enforce a judgement.
the designer is a buiness partner of mine and i know he didn't sell the template - I seriously hope he would have made a better site than that anyway if he did! as a note on the copyright, it doesn't matter that there is no notice on the site, copyright is automatic on anything and everything that you create unless specified otherwise.
now i'm going to get in contact with a lawyer in america...
From an outsiders point of view my advice would be to save your money.
He's not in competition with you and doing no harm to your business so just consider it as flattery and put it behind you.
Carrera2 said:
From an outsiders point of view my advice would be to save your money.
He's not in competition with you and doing no harm to your business so just consider it as flattery and put it behind you.
whilst I do agree with you to some degree, we are involved in international weddings so there is a bit of competition, and what if he were to move above us in the search engines - that would certainly have potential to harm us. We will see what the american lawyers think. (No win no fee???)
I wouldn't waste your time and money on pursuing it legally:
1) I don't suppose you're losing any business as a result of his copying.
2) Immitation it the greatest form of flattery!
3) I guarantee it will take thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.
4) I guarnatee you won't win in any event. The lawyer won't tell you that because he wants you custom.
I've had companies copying our sales & marketing material and my attitude is, "let's attempt to always be one step ahead of the competition". Equally, if they need to nick other people's ideas the chances are they not creative thinkers - which is an essential tool in most businesses. As such, they probably won't be around for too long.
1) I don't suppose you're losing any business as a result of his copying.
2) Immitation it the greatest form of flattery!
3) I guarantee it will take thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.
4) I guarnatee you won't win in any event. The lawyer won't tell you that because he wants you custom.
I've had companies copying our sales & marketing material and my attitude is, "let's attempt to always be one step ahead of the competition". Equally, if they need to nick other people's ideas the chances are they not creative thinkers - which is an essential tool in most businesses. As such, they probably won't be around for too long.
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