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Aren't you afraid of a potential lawsuit from Linear[1]? Your interface looks like a copy paste. Dont get me wrong, it's amazing what you've build but cloning a

Aren't you afraid of a potential lawsuit from Linear[1]? Your interface looks like a copy paste. Dont get me wrong, it's amazing what you've build but cloning a well funded startup may not be the best strategy. 1 https://linear.app https://linear.app

zarzavat 2y ago
Lawsuit under what law? The general design of a user interface is not copyrightable, although the assets are. If it was sufficiently distinctive it could be protected with a trademark.
- piterrro 2y ago
  This is not a "general design", it's almost a pixel perfect clone. The law is: copyright law, it doesn't have to be protected with a trademark since UI design is an "artistic work" hence protected by copyright law by design. The Linear company owns the copyright law that was transferred to them during the work of a UI designer.
  - zarzavat 2y ago
    It’s going to depend a lot on the nature of the design. The kind of flat designs that are popular these days have a very low degree of originality. Copyright doesn’t protect functionality, which would rather be protected by patents. So you cannot say “This UI element functions in this way and this is protected”. It is purely about how it looks, and everything looks much the same these days.
mirzap 2y ago
Todoist has had this interface for years. It's standard nowadays, like a grid. I really don't get what people see in Linear; it is way overhyped but a polished app.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  Linear is a great tool but honestly it’s mostly because it’s bug free and has a decent amount of features. Project management software feels like it will eventually become commoditized I think, if we haven’t arrived there already. In the end there’s only so many ways to abstract what a “project” is so eventually the selling point will be based mostly on automation, integrations and UX after that original set of features is there. It’s why I’m quite bull on GitHub’s project management software, because they’ve already got the integration and automation stories handled. They just need to catch up with feature parity and UX. The second that they get that, they will absolutely start eating these other companies lunch. And they are getting closer every year
- thawab 2y ago
  Put a screenshot of Todoist, linear and Tegon. You will see which is inspired or copied. That's the point a few are making here.
harshithmul 2y ago
Indeed, our user interface (UI) shares similarities with Linear’s. We, too, are fans of Linear and appreciate its user experience (UX). After speaking with a lot of people, we concluded that it’s top-notch. Consequently, we wanted to give that experience rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel. Despite drawing inspiration from Linear, we built everything from scratch. Our primary focus is the AI and task prioritization, which consumes most of our effort. We anticipate that our product will evolve and change over time. Our aim was not to duplicate Linear, but to build a great product, and incorporating elements of Linear’s UX was a part of that process.
- barrell 2y ago
  This feels disingenuous. You may have coded everything from scratch, but I couldn’t tell if this was a linear plugin or separate app from the first few seconds. To say linear was just a source of inspiration is just not true. Call a spade a spade - linear’s ui is the best in the business so you copied it outright, down to the icons.
  - harshithmul 2y ago
    Makes sense. Sure we will start working there more.
- BenderV 2y ago
  First, congrats for the launch. Copying the interface is not what I would call "not reinventing the wheel". Not that you shouldn't have inspiration, but really I couldn't tell it was not linear... Futhermore, I think it tell that your product lack AI-first design.
  - harshithmul 2y ago
    It's only been a few months into development, but yeah as our early folks started to use the product and test it out we now started to focus more there.
- steve1977 2y ago
mritchie712 2y ago
Here's a side-by-side. This is way past "taking inspiration" https://x.com/thisritchie/status/1788527859952238598 https://x.com/thisritchie/status/1788527859952238598
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ry4nolson 2y ago
this was the first thing i noticed.

zarzavat 2y ago

Lawsuit under what law? The general design of a user interface is not copyrightable, although the assets are. If it was sufficiently distinctive it could be protected with a trademark.

piterrro 2y ago
This is not a "general design", it's almost a pixel perfect clone. The law is: copyright law, it doesn't have to be protected with a trademark since UI design is an "artistic work" hence protected by copyright law by design. The Linear company owns the copyright law that was transferred to them during the work of a UI designer.
- zarzavat 2y ago
  It’s going to depend a lot on the nature of the design. The kind of flat designs that are popular these days have a very low degree of originality. Copyright doesn’t protect functionality, which would rather be protected by patents. So you cannot say “This UI element functions in this way and this is protected”. It is purely about how it looks, and everything looks much the same these days.

mirzap 2y ago

Todoist has had this interface for years. It's standard nowadays, like a grid. I really don't get what people see in Linear; it is way overhyped but a polished app.

SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
Linear is a great tool but honestly it’s mostly because it’s bug free and has a decent amount of features. Project management software feels like it will eventually become commoditized I think, if we haven’t arrived there already. In the end there’s only so many ways to abstract what a “project” is so eventually the selling point will be based mostly on automation, integrations and UX after that original set of features is there. It’s why I’m quite bull on GitHub’s project management software, because they’ve already got the integration and automation stories handled. They just need to catch up with feature parity and UX. The second that they get that, they will absolutely start eating these other companies lunch. And they are getting closer every year
thawab 2y ago
Put a screenshot of Todoist, linear and Tegon. You will see which is inspired or copied. That's the point a few are making here.

harshithmul 2y ago

Indeed, our user interface (UI) shares similarities with Linear’s. We, too, are fans of Linear and appreciate its user experience (UX). After speaking with a lot of people, we concluded that it’s top-notch. Consequently, we wanted to give that experience rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel. Despite drawing inspiration from Linear, we built everything from scratch. Our primary focus is the AI and task prioritization, which consumes most of our effort. We anticipate that our product will evolve and change over time. Our aim was not to duplicate Linear, but to build a great product, and incorporating elements of Linear’s UX was a part of that process.

barrell 2y ago
This feels disingenuous. You may have coded everything from scratch, but I couldn’t tell if this was a linear plugin or separate app from the first few seconds. To say linear was just a source of inspiration is just not true. Call a spade a spade - linear’s ui is the best in the business so you copied it outright, down to the icons.
- harshithmul 2y ago
  Makes sense. Sure we will start working there more.
BenderV 2y ago
First, congrats for the launch. Copying the interface is not what I would call "not reinventing the wheel". Not that you shouldn't have inspiration, but really I couldn't tell it was not linear... Futhermore, I think it tell that your product lack AI-first design.
- harshithmul 2y ago
  It's only been a few months into development, but yeah as our early folks started to use the product and test it out we now started to focus more there.
steve1977 2y ago

mritchie712 2y ago

Here's a side-by-side. This is way past "taking inspiration" https://x.com/thisritchie/status/1788527859952238598 https://x.com/thisritchie/status/1788527859952238598

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

ry4nolson 2y ago

this was the first thing i noticed.