Web design theft court help

richard-

Hi,

This is an unusual topic, but in 2006 I purchased a web design which I never used, I have had it since, but it has not been online because I never got around to it. Any way I was trying to sell the web design, which is unique and cost me a few hundred pounds a few years ago, someone pointed out on the forum it was advertised that someone had a design the same.

I have been investigating and this company is in the USA, it has been in business since 2005 ish... it has copied the design and has it's own brand name however it still has some of my images and other things which prove it is a copy of my own works. Which only I have the full rights to. It has exactly the design html/coding and full number of pages of my design.

I was wondering how can I take this company to court for the theft of the work? small claims court? how do I go about it because it is digital work, and although I can prove it is my work and I own it, they could just delete all the website.

KeithP

richard- wrote: »

...they could just delete all the website.

Isn't that a good remedy?

Btw, can the Small Claims Court reach USA?

Discodave

richard- wrote: »

Hi,

This is an unusual topic, but in 2006 I purchased a web design which I never used, I have had it since, but it has not been online because I never got around to it. Any way I was trying to sell the web design, which is unique and cost me a few hundred pounds a few years ago, someone pointed out on the forum it was advertised that someone had a design the same.

I have been investigating and this company is in the USA, it has been in business since 2005 ish... it has copied the design and has it's own brand name however it still has some of my images and other things which prove it is a copy of my own works. Which only I have the full rights to. It has exactly the design html/coding and full number of pages of my design.

whats the URLs of both sites, and I'll have a look and what your options are.

I was wondering how can I take this company to court for the theft of the work? small claims court? how do I go about it because it is digital work, and although I can prove it is my work and I own it, they could just delete all the website.

maybe a woooshh!, but if its been in business since 2005, and you bought the design in 2006, but never did anything with it until now, surely its you that stole their design? unknowingly nevertheless?

DVardysShadow

richard- wrote: »

I was wondering how can I take this company to court for the theft of the work? small claims court? how do I go about it because it is digital work, and although I can prove it is my work and I own it, they could just delete all the website.

First identify the wrong doer. As the design has never been online, how could this company get hold of it? Do answer the question - because that will point to the wrong doer.

Personally, I suspect your web designer.

Ballymackeonan

Your web designer may have tweaked a template from a web design package - a lot do this, rather than design from scratch, and this could explain the similarities. Or, if your web designer didn't safeguard the coding and images, someone else could have copied and pasted the HTML. Is there anything on either site which indicates the designer? (small print on the index page, for instance? Or if you right-click on a page and "view source" this takes you into the HTML - a lot to wade through, but can be useful, as designers often include their details here!)

Did you supply the images yourself, or did the web designer source them for you? If they were sourced, they are probably stack images. If they are your own photos, you have the copyright in them, at the very least the US company should be paying you a royalty for their use.

richard-

The design was for sale in 2006 (online), it was a designer who designed it, and I purchased it after seeing it, he did have the site for full view and you could view it but it did not contain all the files such as those image files that are used to design the layout before it is coded. I purchased it after seeing the site advertised but it has been sitting on my computer all those years with no use. So I advertised it for sale a few days ago, where I advertised I only showed an image of the site not the full view so it was not possible for someone to copy.

Some one then pointed out to me that my advertised site looks exactly like another site, and then I looked at that site they pointed out further and they had made some tweaks to suit there needs.

I found content on there site which was not the type of content they need or should have, therefore I guess that when the person who designed the site advertised it in the first place, this is when they copied it. I

looked at the archive history of the website at https://www.archive.org and it showed that it was copied in around 2006 and online a month after it was advertised for sale.

So as I am the full owner. Here for an example mine Im not going to give away the direct link to view but mine has animated images and roll overs.

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/8218/grap1ms8.jpg

This is the copied website

xesupport.net

If any one wants to see mine fully please message me for full details.

dan_m2k

To me (a web designer by trade) is that it looks remarkably like a design template has been employed here, and as someone else has already said, would explain similarities.

Also, (I'm sorry as this doesn't help you) but it looks like a stock image on the screenshot you provide, and I think I actually recognise the icons from a well known stock package of icons available to all and sundry on the internet.

Tozer

Small claims judgment enforced in the USA? Forget it. Just won't work. I'm not even sure what damages or cause of action you could claim.

Firefox1975

Yeah, can't see this sticking really. All you can prove is that you bought it in 2006, they had it in 2005.

So when you bought it I think you just got fleeced. Go back to whoever designed it for you and take it up with them. it's a civil matter.

And are you sure you have a worldwide patent on it anyway? you might only own the licence in this country.

RobertoMoir

dan_m2k wrote: »

To me (a web designer by trade) is that it looks remarkably like a design template has been employed here, and as someone else has already said, would explain similarities.

Also, (I'm sorry as this doesn't help you) but it looks like a stock image on the screenshot you provide, and I think I actually recognise the icons from a well known stock package of icons available to all and sundry on the internet.

Agreed. Sorry OP but there's nothing in that design that looks original to me. I've been working in the general field of IT for a long time, but I've done a lot with web design and suchlike, and this is quite a common design layout, and as Dan says, the design elements are also very common indeed.

Tozer

Firefox1975 wrote: »

And are you sure you have a worldwide patent on it anyway? you might only own the licence in this country.

Who said anything about patents?