Copyright protection

There is one very nice article on copyright protection at the AIGA center for practice management. It explains how designers could deal with copyright infringements and protect their work.

There are a couple of ways to protect your intellectual property—patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade dresses. If you intend to use any of them, contact an attorney.

Trademark

A trademark can protect the domain name of a website. Consult Wikipedia's article on trademark.

Patent

Patents can protect digital products. Consult Wikipedia's article on patent.

Trade dress

With a trade dress we can protect the look and feel of a website. Consult Wikipedia's article on trade dress.

Copyright

A copyright can protect the content of a website. Consult Wikipedia's article on copyright.

Conclusion

Although intellectual property instruments are there to help us protect our work, they were not meant to make people fight against each other, when they should have innovated more. Generally, they are not of a long-term interest for the society.