Launched my SaaS 8 months ago. Competitor launched last week with nearly identical UI — same layout, similar colors, same component structure. Even copied some of my marketing copy. Feel like I'm going crazy. What legal options do I have?
Let's break down your options:
Copyright: Protects specific creative expression, not ideas. If they literally copied your CSS/code, that's infringement. If they recreated similar designs from scratch, harder to prove.
Trade dress: Protects distinctive visual appearance that identifies the source. Requires proving your design is distinctive AND consumers associate it with you. Very hard for UI unless you're Slack or Notion-level recognizable.
Marketing copy: This is more actionable. Verbatim copying of text is clear copyright infringement.
Practical first step: Send a cease & desist for the copied marketing copy. Document everything with timestamps.
Been there. Someone cloned my landing page. Here's what I actually did:
1. Documented with Wayback Machine screenshots + timestamps
2. Sent C&D letter (wrote it myself, saved $500)
3. They ignored it
4. I moved on and out-executed them
Unless you have $50K+ for litigation and can prove actual damages, focus on building. Copycats usually fail because they don't understand WHY your design works.
For the copied marketing text: file DMCA takedowns with their hosting provider and with Google (for search results). It's free and often effective.
For UI: honestly not worth pursuing unless they literally stole your code/assets. "Similar looking" isn't actionable in most cases. Every dashboard app looks like every other dashboard app.
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