Copyright in app design

[jsmoke]

Does anyone know anything about this. Seems a slightly grey area in some parts.

Can you copy UI design for example. I think things like graphics, including icons and logos are copyrighted, maybe not though but I wouldn't copy these anyway but there are some UI designs I quite like, listviews, menus, checkboxes, buttons, labels and plenty more.

So what's the law regarding copying, or partially copying the UI, from a google search there seems to be no copyright on it?

For example if I copy 100% the UI of an app and added my own graphics would I get into trouble?

 

[jsmoke]

You can't copy anything from another app. All the stuff you mentioned (listviews, menus, checkboxes, buttons, labels) will all be copyrighted. Chances are that they're from a third-party library and are either free to use* or available at a small cost. So you can easily use them in your app if you want, but you need to check the licence first.

*free doesn't mean they are not copyright. You still need to comply with the license agreement to use them.

Well after some googling there doesn't seem to be any copyright on UI design, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/248606/are-uis-copyrighted, graphics and code yes, they seem to be copyrighted the moment they are created but actual layout/UI/design, there is no copyright, only if you were to patent it.