Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> LawPundit

Legal Commentary

: LawPundit

Google Gets Design Patent for Website Graphical User Interface : Patenting a Website, Web Page or Blog Design

By Andis Kaulins

Open the "patent gates". You can now patent your website, web page or blog design. Google shows us the way.

The Business and Tax Lawyer Blog posts about a design patent issued to Google for a "Graphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal":

I love this one because - let's face it - if Google can patent THAT, then anyone with a uniquely designed website or blog can - theoretically - patent the design of their page(s).

Obviously, most people can as a practical fact not patent their website designs because the cost of patenting is prohibitive -- at least it is for a normal Internet user.

What this means under the first-to-file rule is that anyone with enough money to file a design patent can steal the designs of financially lesser others with impunity -- and this is actually how most everything actually operates.

Hence, the patent laws actually only serve to protect the designs of people or institutions who can afford to register them and who can subsequently afford to hire the lawyers to enforce them.

Justice Scalia, this a direct question to you:


We doubt it.

Full post as published by LawPundit on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).