
Ask HN: Is it ok to steal a website's design/branding? - ratsimihah
Those aren&#x27;t trademarked are they? Can one use the same colour scheme, font, gradients, etc without legal consequences?
======
gus_massa
It's complicated. More details in
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_and_feel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_and_feel)

------
cimmanom
They’re copyrighted. (And you don’t have to file for a copyright to have one.)

Go ahead and reuse fonts and gradients and design something inspired by
someone else’s website. But don’t copy their design in a recognizable way. The
latter is both unethical and (in most places) illegal.

------
luckylion
Depends on jurisdiction, and possibly the design, i.e. if it's very artistic
it may be protected, if it's a standard theme with a few colors changed it may
not be.

------
nickwhite99
Are they in the same industry as you / direct competition? Be careful with
this...as the last thing you want is a law suit

------
potta_coffee
You can't copy distinctive branding, but there's no way to copyright a color
scheme or page layout.

------
enz
Maybe you can just buy a Bootstrap theme?

