Correct. As much as Mr. Gruber may be irritated / frustrated that Figma AI's engine just apes Apple design patterns when asked to build a novel interface, how much legal protection do we really want to give button, switch, and gauge patterns?
Think about how wildly different Photoshop and Gimp's UIs are. Do we want a world where every application has to be that different from its neighbors because the government has granted strong legal protections for interface design IP? Remember what Nintendo owning an exclusive patent on the crosspad did to every other game console's crosspad for several decades? To give an analogy: I think people generally consider the "APIs are copyrightable" decision to be a bit bullshit... Who wants stronger protections for human interface designs than we already have?
Yeah I agree that generic UI elements should not be protected by IP law. What‘s baffling to me is that the design that Figma AI produced is so clearly derivative in layout and graphical style choices. There absolutely is more than one good way to design a weather app. The thought that many companies might soon use Figma AI as their starting points for their designs is kind of depressing to me, seeing as there is already so little originality present in current UI/Visual design anyways. Things might get a lot more generic and uninspired quickly.
Think about how wildly different Photoshop and Gimp's UIs are. Do we want a world where every application has to be that different from its neighbors because the government has granted strong legal protections for interface design IP? Remember what Nintendo owning an exclusive patent on the crosspad did to every other game console's crosspad for several decades? To give an analogy: I think people generally consider the "APIs are copyrightable" decision to be a bit bullshit... Who wants stronger protections for human interface designs than we already have?