What to do when your work is ripped off?

[davidbehan]

Hi,

As you may know... I do a lot of property websites. It can be hard to come up with new styles and layouts but I've got a fairly winning formula and I base my designs along those lines. I'm actually trying new ones with each different client so the main functionality is there and the proven technique works but do it in a slightly different way to make it different.

Now, what do you do when someone copies your design style/layout/technique?

I've found 3 so far that are questionable:

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Fintan Cahill Auctioneer - Residential

looks very similar to:

Residential Property | Cavan Property - Cavan Homes - Buying in Cavan | Geraldine O'Reilly Auctioneers & Valuers
Raymond Potterton - Residential
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Donegal Estates - Your Property Professionals in Donegal - Estate Agents and Auctioneers

looks very similar to:

http://www.raymondpotterton.com/ (the old version had 4 panels exactly as above)

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Craft Conservatories, Sunrooms, Dublin, Meath, Louth, Cavan, Kildare, Ireland

looks a lot like:

Raymond Potterton - Auctioneers, Valuers, Land & Estate Agents
Property Meath - New Homes Meath - Estate Agents Meath - Auctioneers Meath - Raymond Potterton Auctioneers, Navan, Meath
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Should I be flattered? Should I be angry? Should I contact them?

I know web design is based around "oh, I like that look", "can I have something similar to xyz.com", etc. but this is a bit overboard.

What would you do? What have you done?

Thanks, Dave

 

[Tom]

There's nothing worse than feeling your designs or work are being copied and used by someone else. Believe me I know, as I imagine most web designers do. I had a quick glance over the sites and to me (someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of those sites) they look different enough. Most sites offering the same product or service do have similarities in design and functionality. And it is down to people copying or being inspired by how others do it. I think if they have copied images or content then it's a different story otherwise you would probably need to trademark certain things like a special layout or special features to protect them but unless it's a unique layout or feature it probably exists a million times over on the web already and would probably be impossible to protect.

Bear in mind I've only glanced over the sites!

 

[Forbairt]

to be honest I'm not sure ... I wouldn't see them and go ... oh they look very similar. (I've not looked at the markup though so I've no idea if that is similar or not)

going to Real Estate Web Templates | Real Estate Flash Templates | Template Monster

I'm going to find elements from yours very similar or vice versa I guess you've got to ask which were designed first. I'll assume you've got the history of the sites so you can compare when they went online ?

The other day I recommended a student have a look at adverts online and copy the style.
Advice Needed for Poster\Ad - boards.ie

A "designer" said this was plagurism now I think I was taken slightly out of context here so hmm...
How does one do extremely creative work unless its completely out there ... in which case your client isn't going to be happy.

At the moment one of my clients wants his site just like another site ... and I'm trying to introduce enough uniqueness to it that its different but its very hard Now I'm sourcing all my own images and doing all the css myself .. but the general rule was do something like theirs

 

[davidbehan]

I know what you are saying and that's why I'm in two minds - take it as flattery or do something about it!

[ponder]me[/ponder]

 

[Forbairt]

just looking at them again I don't really see it ... They look similar to a lot of the adverts I see in the galway advertiser and have seen for years so hmm...

 

[davidbehan]

Thing is... I've had a few people ring me up and say "Did you do that site?" and I can see the things that stand out as unique to my work. I'm thinking of putting the designs side by side and highlighting the similarities that I would regards as "mine". I don't mind an element here or element there being replicated but too many from the one site, and I believe it's plagiarism!


Thanks for the comments!

 

[davidbehan]

I talked to one of the guys on the phone today about it and he actually asked me to do work for him! LOL

 

[Forbairt]

Excellent .. so it pays to chase these things up

 

[Drang3d]

I think theres a very thin line, I mean in a way a lot of this is what breathes creativity in webdesign. I mean getting "inspiration" from another websites structure free's up time and allows you to be more creative in other areas of web design. If we had to recreate the wheel everytime we do a design I think it would hinder progress.