Can a website's structure be copyrighted?

Welcome2TheU · Mar 30, 2015

The top competitor in my niche has a very nicely organized site structure. Could I be facing any legal repercussions from copying their organization?

For example, let's say their website is about food
then their first subfolder is /cuisine. And in that page they have Asian, American, British, Chinese, Colombian, etc
then under /cuisine/asian they have links to /recipes, /restaurants, /ingredients, etc

Is it legal to copy the structure exactly, as long as the site's content and design are not plagiarized/copied?

johnking200 · Mar 30, 2015

Not a lawyer...

But I would say no, it cannot be copyrighted. For example, look at most movies these days, they all have the same 3 act structure with different content.

bullsbears · Mar 30, 2015

No problem in doing this OP. You can use similar structure.

I am actually surprised you even thought that this could invite trouble !!!!

pazocean · Mar 30, 2015

Also not a lawyer here...
However, I am 99,99% sure that a organization structure cannot be copyrighted.
So no problem.

RuthSam · Mar 30, 2015

You can do it, no law suites, no problems. If that would invite problems some could sue the entire Internet!

JOSourcing · Mar 30, 2015

There was similar concern about this among software developers, and if my memory serves correct, there was even a lawsuit in which Lotus claimed Borland stole their menu and menuitem structure. Ah yes, here it is: Lotus Development Corporation v. Borland International, Inc., 516 U.S. 233 (1996). You should study it. That, and software cloning, because it's the same premise.

oscilay · Mar 30, 2015

Yes, you can get in trouble. Also, place your logo at the bottom of your website...

Can a website's structure be copyrighted?

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