[angusdavis]

Yeah, it means the guy is smart and is borrowing strength from what he knows works. 37 Signals published their conversion rates from the highrise landing page for a reason. Goal at this stage is to see if people will sign up for the concept. Once he proves that out (i.e. customer development), I'm sure he'll invest in some of his own graphic identity, logo selection, color schemes, etc.

[nkohari]

So you're saying that, until I have the time to invest in my own branding, I can just use the Coke logo instead?

[shpxnvz]

No, he's saying you can imitate a design that is not protected by trademark; quite unlike the Coke logo.

They do declare copyright on the design, but that doesn't protect against designs that are merely similar.

[angusdavis]

Um, it's called a "design pattern" for a reason.

For more interesting discussions about where to draw the line on imitating others, you may want to check out a little company called Zynga.

[zackattack]

You got it. I'm reading steve blank's book (slowly...it's tough) and trying to formulate my own unique way of applying it to web applications. This reminds me: I'm gonna go spend an hour reading.