Design plagiarism?

[marty1990]

I've been contracted to design an infographic surrounding Star Trek. In my infographic there are cartoon versions of Kirk and Spock, however I'm a little concerned. For you see, the company I have designed the infographic for really like the look of my 'cartoony' versions of the characters, but, after looking on visual.ly, I've found an Obama/Romney infographic, and the style of Obama and Romney is pretty much the same as mine. If I keep that look on my infographic, could I be done for plagiarism, or would it be classed as just a standard design?

http://visual.ly/what-obama-and-romney-voters

That's the original, I shan't post mine as the company is hoping to use my infographic as part of an online campaign, and they don't want it live yet.

[Drunken Master]

Just claim it's "an homage".

That's how everyone gets away with shamelessly ripping people off these days.

[marty1990]

Thats the thing I didn't attempt to copy, I designed this infographic, sent it to my client, they liked it, then a friend showed me the Obama one, and now am worried.

[ChrisA]

One cannot copyright a style, only content. If your web page can be mistaken for their web page then you may have violated copyright. If it is only a similar style but with different content then there is no copyright violation.

This does extend to sub-parts of the page, for example if you lifted a cartoon on Romney, but you did not do that.

[marty1990]

So, even though my Star Trek characters are in the same style as Obama and Romney, it's okay if this were to get published online?

[Lunfai]

Originally Posted by marty1990

So, even thought my Star Trek characters are in the same style as Obama and Romney, it's okay if this were to get published online?

Aslong as the rest of the design/web page isn't similar, then you're good to go.

[marty1990]

yeah, everything is my own, even the characters. just the design of the characters is similar to the romney/obama on the above infographic.

[sigmadog]

Personally, I would be more concerned about the potential copyright infringement of Star Trek.

[marty1990]

Originally Posted by sigmadog

Personally, I would be more concerned about the potential copyright infringement of Star Trek.

Yeah, that was my concern too, but they aren't bothered, so that's their decision. The characters are my doing, but if there's similar designs, I'll just leave them as they are then.

Thanks.

[rocknblogger]

I've seen other very similar info graphics but they had different content, like yours I'm guessing, so I have to agree with everyone else. You're good to go.