Copyright breach – how close can I go?
<p>Recently I was working on usability for a web applicatioin (which I'm not allowed to share :( and the UI ended up looking just like the Gmail. Would there be any copyrights issue if I churn out something similar to Google gmail? Also how do I convince or reason it out with the management?</p>

<p>I have uploaded 2 snapshots so you can have a look.
Standards are meant to be used otherwise what's the point? 
Also I got a reply from another forum: Pablo Picasso once said "Good artists copy, great artists steal."<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/9U4dK.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/9U4dK.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/hwNyZ.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/hwNyZ.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Well, what a coincidence. </p>

<p>If it looks like Gmail, and someone at Google sees it, there is the risk that you are getting sued for copyright infringement. I couldn't possibly judge whether you are <em>guilty</em> of copyright infringement, but you can get <em>sued</em> (which costs time and money), and there is the possibility that a court <em>decides against you</em> (costs a lot of money), whether you committed copyright infringement or not. </p>

<p>How do you convince your management: You don't. It's their decision. You tell them honestly what you think the risks are. It's their job to make the decision, possibly after consulting a lawyer. Whether they want to throw your work away (or possibly make you change it), or whether they accept a risk of being sued, it's their decision. </p>

copyright criminal-law contract-law constitutional-law copyright-transfer