Let me try to explain this clearly. Please read carefully before replying so I can get the best answers. Example 1: Let us say that I was the creator of youtube.com. I copyright and patent it. Then a dozen others come along with a different domain, different name, different design, different methods. I cannot touch them legally. Even though they took my idea - they did it in their own way. They changed everything but it still functions the same. Example 2 Let us say that I was the creator of the first myspace friend adder bot. I copyright and patent it. Dozens of others come out with a different domain, different design, different name, different sales methods, different layouts, different coding, different features, different options. I can't touch them legally. Even if I had the money to take them to court - I can't win. If myspace.com takes adultspace.com to court they can't win. If the first myspace friend adder bot takes the others to court and sues for loss of money they can't win. The others did it in their own way, their own design, their own name, their own features, their own options, extras, different functionality. Even though you can clearly see it came from the originator - the law doesn't back it up. It is like a web design. If I like a web design that is copyrighted and even patented - All I have to do is change 60percent of it and there is nothing the original design can do about it. NOTHING. As long as 60% of the site is changes (Colors, Borders, Additions, Changes, ect) I can't touch them legally. Same with the two examples. If you change it enough in your own way - you're legally safe. EVEN IF YOU TOOK THE IDEA/CONCEPT - ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CHANGE IT ENOUGH INTO YOUR OWN AND THE LAW CANT TOUCH YOU. NOW HERE IS THE GOOD PART / QUESTION Let us say I make a site called www.collectcamelmoney.com (camel cigerette money) Another site comes out with "www.lotsofcamelmoney.com" They are EXTREMELY close to collectcamelmoney.com They even have the same major functionality. In court, a jury can clearly see that they imitated and copied collectcamelmoney.com Opinions: Do you think collectcamelmoney.com would win a court case to sue lotsofcamelmoney.com for every penny they made AND money they made collectcamelmoney.com lose???
Um.. yeah... While I tell this to anyone online, I would especially in this case. Get yourself an LLC. You'll need it.
You can try, of course, but it would only happen if you copyrighted something specific that they copied. General site concept is not enough, they need to have done something you protected legally. As far as suing for damaged, I don't think you can sue both for their revenue and your lost revenue, that sounds like suing for the same damages twice.