[teachingaway]

I disagree. A design patent for a user interface would do the trick. So would some clever copyright registrations.

http://adlervermillion.com/user-interface-design-patents/

Not every lawyer knows/understands IP and user interface design. But if you find a lawyer who specializes in the two, and you lay the groundwork before your design is copied, you should have a strong legal position when the copycats arrive.

For an early-stage startup, it may not make sense to sink a ton of $$ into design patents. But companies with more revenue/capital should think about it.

[dkrich]

I disagree from a practical, as well as financial standpoint.

It's very difficult to patent a software interface design as you have to prove a lack of existence of prior art and the patent must describe the specifics of what you are patenting.

These days there's very little new under the sun. I don't see anything remarkably unique about that particular interface. I'm certainly not saying that it wasn't lifted by their competitor, but that analytics dash also bares a striking resemblance to Google Analytics and a host of others, not to mention Microsoft Excel. Okay, it's blue and has large Helvetica numbers- is that what you're going to patent? Okay, I'll change mine to a green color scheme with Arial fonts. Your patent is no longer enforceable, and your IP attorneys who tend to be paid quite well will charge you tens of thousands of dollars to prove that.

I can imagine it feels like a major violation and annoying to be ripped off, and I don't condone that strategy, but I doubt that CB's competitive advantage is a color scheme and some data labels. A design patent would have basically no value in this scenario.

[georgeecollins]

That's a great link to example of user design patents that proves your point. But reading that I feel like almost all the examples they show are not protecting innovation. It seems like the kind of thing that ought to be protected as trademarks, not patents. If Google makes a page that is distinctive enough to be its trademark and you make a paget that looks clese enough to that page that the average user coudl confuse them, it seems like you are doing the equivelent of infringing on a trademark.

But you are right, it ui is patentable.