Copying a website's set of options when developing a new one

Question

For example I want to create/develop new booking.com

All the options from booking.com will be used on this one.

I don't plan to steal the code or design, I will code and design it from scratch myself. No images/text etc will be taken from competitor.

What concerns me are the options (tools) that give property owners to input all information about their properties. Those will be identical as competitors, and without it the website would not have purpose.

Are the websites like booking and similar under some kind of copyright/intellectual property law?

Answer 1

Yes and no. To be protected (and copyrighted), in most of the countries, the work has to be original. It is sometimes also called the threshold of originality and it covers also partial work.

You will be fine if you only use the same functionalities, but don't display them in the same way and with a different design. If the concept or the functionalities are very specific and unique, you might want to double check with a lawyer before.

Also, you should also consider the patent law which is very different from the copyright law. You could go into trouble if there is a patent filled for your country or internationnaly.