Protecting a website concept?

swillsy · 2 Jul 2020 at 15:44

Hi All, I've had a quick google however wondered if anyone on here had real world experience as there are mixed messages. I've been learning more front end development during the lockdown and I'm finally close to releasing an online platform which looks to be unique for businesses to use.
However the idea could be copied relatively quickly if a company wanted to. The company I work for do not have anything like it currently and I've tried searching online for a similar tool without success. I promise its not a left handed screwdriver

Is there anything I could be doing now to protect the idea or is it not worth exploring and just crack on with trying to sell it?

jsmoke · 2 Jul 2020 at 15:55

Not really, as far as I remember you can't protect source code. You can protect your images however but not layout.

Deleted member 77746 · 2 Jul 2020 at 15:59

You got a demo of it?

swillsy · 2 Jul 2020 at 21:50

mrbell1984 said:
You got a demo of it?

Nothing online yet but I've been working on this video tutorial showing how it works from a user perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

Deleted member 77746 · 2 Jul 2020 at 21:51

swillsy said:
Nothing online yet but I've been working on this video tutorial showing how it works from a user perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

We can't tell you how to protect it if you don't show us what you are protecting.

tom_e · 2 Jul 2020 at 21:58

Come back to a proper team and you won't have all this spare time for your own projects to worry about

Was actually expecting a well endowed gent in that link, glad it's just Rick

swillsy · 3 Jul 2020 at 09:33

Ha! Tom - No such thing as free time! Always hustling

this is a family forum otherwise you know I would give a shout out to Barry.

Bug One · 3 Jul 2020 at 09:38

You can't. If you could, Google wouldn't exist.

Tee Hee Johnson · 3 Jul 2020 at 11:19

swillsy said:
Nothing online yet but I've been working on this video tutorial showing how it works from a user perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

Dang, walked right into that one!

Good job!!

Vince · 3 Jul 2020 at 11:35

swillsy said:
Hi All, I've had a quick google however wondered if anyone on here had real world experience as there are mixed messages. I've been learning more front end development during the lockdown and I'm finally close to releasing an online platform which looks to be unique for businesses to use.
However the idea could be copied relatively quickly if a company wanted to. The company I work for do not have anything like it currently and I've tried searching online for a similar tool without success. I promise its not a left handed screwdriver

Is there anything I could be doing now to protect the idea or is it not worth exploring and just crack on with trying to sell it?

You should reach out to a firm that could give you some advice. I actually work for an IP firm and we regularly advise on what can and can't be protected and also how you would go about it.

visibleman · 3 Jul 2020 at 20:34

swillsy said:
Is there anything I could be doing now to protect the idea or is it not worth exploring and just crack on with trying to sell it?

As @Vince mentions, speak to an IP firm if you're attempting to protect a concept. If it's unique enough then you probably can protect aspects of it.

If you mean source code (specifically web based) then the easiest option is to push all logic rearwards and make the front-end as dumb as possible. And any front-end code can be obfuscated which, won't stop anyone copying it, but will make it a little harder when reverse engineering.
You might also be able to compile JS and execute within browsers with a mixture of NodeJS and nwjs but it's not something i've really looked into.

Aedus · 16 Jul 2020 at 17:58

jsmoke said:
Not really, as far as I remember you can't protect source code. You can protect your images however but not layout.

Few days late, but you can definitely protect your source code, if a company cloned your source code and used it in their own site, you can absolutely claim copyright, however you can't claim copyright if they take your concept but write their own source code which essentially achieves the same thing.

swillsy · 20 Jul 2020 at 13:54

Aedus said:
Few days late, but you can definitely protect your source code, if a company cloned your source code and used it in their own site, you can absolutely claim copyright, however you can't claim copyright if they take your concept but write their own source code which essentially achieves the same thing.

Yep this is how I understand it. If they copy paste then you can get into issues whereas if you're inspired by it and write similar code then there aren't any problems.

Thanks for feedback guys - I'll let you know how it goes