: Is it legally problematic to use the same WordPress theme as my competitor? I want to purchase a WordPress theme from ThemeForest, however, it is used by a competitor. Can they make a formal

@Miguel251

If your competitor is worried about other sites looking like theirs then they should not have bought and used a barely customised , widely used wordpress theme.

Like the other answers here have mentioned: Just don't copy content from your competitor and don't customise the theme in exactly the same way they have (e.g. if they have changed the background colour to light blue: don't pick the same background colour as them!)

Imagine if you both happened to hire the same web designer to do your website: Some of the code on your sites will be exactly the same as the web designer probably re-uses their code between clients to avoid reinventing the wheel. That does not mean your competitor can point at your code and say you stole off them: it means they should have had a better contract with the web designer that meant they themselves own the code used on their page and that the web designer cannot re-use it for other clients at all.

Buying a wordpress theme is exactly the same as that budget web designer: you are buying the code for your own use but you cannot stop someone else from also buying that exact same code (buying that same theme).

Just because they bought the theme 'first' does not mean they can prevent you from also using the theme.

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@Annie201

I want to purchase a WordPress theme...it is used by a competitor. Can they make a formal complaint that I have copied their site...I would want to modify it to look a little different, but it would appear very similar initially...


Here's what I recommend. Since you plan to nearly duplicate the theme of a competitor, you should turn your computer into your own private web server and run anything on that.

The advantage here is the server is only accessible by your computer and no internet connection is required by you to access it. Easiest way to get one is to download apache and set it up.

If that does not work, then rent an online server and contact the administrator to set it up so that computers from your network are the only ones allowed in (while other users will get some sort of access denied message). This will be a bit easier if you go for a virtual private server or dedicated server but those options may be more expensive.

While my idea might seem somewhat sneaky, you're actually doing two sets of people a favor. you're doing guests a favor by not making them see undesired webpages when they try to access your site at the same time you're making one of many updates. You're also doing your competitor a favor by not making consistant minor tweaks to the site where most of those changes could result in duplicate pages of that of the competitor.

When you are editing, you want to modify it to look different to the point where there's no chance you're copying your competitor. I mean if you want to use a similar set of colors, that's no problem. Heck, nearly every quality website I see has a basic color theme of using black text on a white background.

I think the most amount of copying you can do without getting in trouble is about 10 to 25%, but what I strongly recommend is to use completely different text and completely different user interface layout. For example, if your competitor has a series of buttons on the left and talks about boats, you can make a site with a series of buttons with bigger spacing on the right that talks about cats.

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@Correia994

You and your competitor are using someone else's product for the product's intended use. You are both allowed to use the product in the same way.

What matters are the things that aren't part of the product itself:


Did you write similar content?
Are you using the same custom scripts that weren't part of the theme?
Is the design similar enough that a non-designer would say that they are effectively the same?


I'm not a lawyer, but if you can answer 'no' to these questions, then you should be okay.

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@Barnes591

Would I be right in saying that as they do not own the intelluctual rights this wouldn't be a problem to do.


No. Copyright is far from the only applicable law here. For instance in Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp the use of a competitors domain name in meta tags was found to be a trademark infringement. More directly this page clearskylaw.com/trade-dress-law-protects-look-feel-websites-digital-layouts/ claims that the decision in Millenium Labs v. Ameritox establishes grounds for a claim of infringement of trade dress on the basis of copying a web sites look and feel. The fact that this theme is widely used might mean the the claimed trade dress is not inherently distinctive but its not anything I would want to rely on.

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@Si4351233

Just adding to closetnoc's answer.

Wordpress is released with GPLv2 (or later) from the free software foundation. Part of this license outlines requirements for derivative works, such as plugins or themes. Derivatives of WordPress code inherit the GPL license.

Which means that it's free full stop! (Developers only charge you for access, automatic update and support. Not the theme or plugin.)

Even the developer of the theme cannot sue you if you decided to take it and sell it off as your own as an example. (I'm not encouraging taking other people's hard work and passing it as your own, just stating that it's allowed within the license.)

Even if it's customised there'll still be no problem using it exactly the same because of the licence.

With that out of the way, imitating a brand is something different and that may have legal repercussions as suggested above by closetnoc.

Using similar colours on the logo, same text on product pages will look like you're using the brand to pass as your own.

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@Jamie184

Of course not.

If you bought the theme from Themeforest (and from any other ThemeForest), you have the licence to use that theme for your own use and do whatever you want with that. If you want to create 2000 mirror webpages with that particular websites and you bought that licence, you have the rights to do that without risking anything.

Also, nobody is going to sue you or blame you that you "stole" the theme from a competitor. You said it by yourself that this particular WP theme has been sold more than 30k.

However, the only way to have a problem is only if your competitor has a customised theme. In that case, the legal rights are owned by him and his developers for the "customised" part. Stealing his custom code/scripts/etc. can be a problem
Of course, it is so so so so so rare to have a sue or legal notice. We are talking about the internet here and globally legal notices. In my opinion, your competitor is going to pay by far more rather than the "potential" fine from the court of law that you are going to be prosecuted. Come on.

The only problem is that you want to trick your visitors and gain reputation via your competitor's reputation.
No fair, but everything is acceptable on an open market. There is no ideal on the internet and even more on competitions.

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@Alves908

Copyright applies to content. So copyright would not apply here since the content is uniquely yours (assumption) and that the theme is available for use by many.

Trademarks should be registered (generally). Unless you are using a trademark that is not yours, this does not apply.

However, too much similarity may still be considered trade infringement without a specific trademark infringement. All it has to do is be reasonably confusing to customers. As long as that argument can be made and agreed with, you can be in trouble. Keep in mind that an argument only has to sound reasonable to an unreasonable judge to work against you.

My advice is to evaluate how you distinguish yourself from your competitors in regard to content, look and feel, and usability. Make sure that no reasonable argument that your site is too similar to another can be made.

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@Smith883

I am no lawyer, but as long as you are not trying to confuse people by looking like a 'houshold name' brand, given that the theme is readily available there should be no issue.

Make your site similar by all means, but also make it clearly unique and you should be OK.

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