Copyright, Design Patent, and Trademark Issues
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Transcript of Copyright, Design Patent, and Trademark Issues
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Copyright,
Design Patent
& Trademark
Issues
TypoTechnica 2003
Thomas Caldwell
Font DevelopmentCoordinator
Process and QualityManagement
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Contents
Contents
When to use and
Adding Trademarks andCopyrights to your Fonts
Trademark
Design Patents & DesignRegistration
Copyright
End User LicenseAgreements
Why Protect your Work?
Types of Protection
How and where toregister
What Linotype Library
does to Protect your
Fonts
Aldus
Antique OliveBanco
ITC Bauhaus
Plantin
Times TenZapfino
Knowledge is the bestprotection.
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Why Protect your
Work?
Why Protect your Work?
The devlopment of fontsand new technologies is
expensive and financedthrough sales
Font piracy is everywhere.
Designers would have noauthorship rights to theirdesigns without protection
Nothing would stop piratesfrom copying fonts. En-
forcement of intellectualproperty rights is only
possible with correctprotection
No sale of fonts ispossible without
documented authorship(designer andmanufactuerer) andwithout a contract (EndUser License Agreement)
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Types of Protection
Types of Protection
USA
Trademark and DesignPatent as part of thePatent process
Copyright registration
possible
Europe
Trademark Patent
Design Registration bycountry or
for the whole EU
Copyright registration
not possible
Different rules apply fordifferent regions. Thethree main regions are
- Europe
- USA- Asia (not covered by
this presentation)
Trademark
Design Patents / Design
Registation
Copyright
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Trademark
Name of the typefaceis protected
Types of Protection
In Euope the use of a
name can be consideredjustification for anunregistered TrademarkIt must be in use, soalways use TM !
Legally enforcable for thecountries where regis-
tered
Enforcable only for theclasses registered
Trademark Nameregistration is possible forthe whole world
A registered Trademark
Name has the highestlevel of protection
The name can be
registered in variousdifferent classes
TM
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Design Registration
Europe
Community Design
Registration
Duration of protection:5 25 years
The main reason for
Design Registration isdocumentation of thedesign at the time of
registration
Novelty required for legalenforcement less
protection for texttypefaces
Legal enforcementquestionable
May not be shown in
public prior to registration6 month race eriod
Only a registrationprocess not validated
No protection forA-Z, a-z, 0-9, only
additional glyphs
Protection only withinthe EU
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US Design Patents
Design of thetypeface is protected
Design Patents
Duration of protection 14years
Protection only within the
USA
Novelty and nonobviousornamental design
The design patentprotects only theappearance
You must claim prior art
(provide samples)
Only 153 entries in theclass D18/24 (type font /typeface design)
About 90% are fonts
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Online
Information
(Example: Design
Patent)
Online Research
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
United States Patent andTrademark Office
Other organisations aremaking their information
available online
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Copyright
Digital source data ofthe font is protected
(hint instructions,outline points used in
the hinting program)
Copyright
USA
Curve points in
combination with hintinghave been protected
sucessfully (Adobe Inc.vs. Southern Software
Inc.) with an out of courtsettlement
Europe
No registration possible
Very weak designprotection due to theexclusions in theCopyright Act
No protection withoutTrademark, DesignRegistration and/or anEnd User LicenseAgree-
ment
Copyright is probablyone of the most
misundersood conceptsof protection. Alone itprovides no protectionfor typeface designs.
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USA
Excluded from CopyrightProtection
Typefaces & their digitalrepresentationsdo not enjoy copyrightprotection under theCopyright Act
Copyright
Titles
Names
short phrases
slogans
Typefaces & their digitalrepresentations (bitmaps,outlines outline pointsquestionable)
the utilitarian elements ofindustrial designs
85 familiar symbols ordesigns
simple geometrical
shapes
mere variations oftypographic ornamen-tation, lettering or
coloring
common works con-sidered public property,such as standard calen-
dars, height and weightcharts, and tape mea-
sures and rulers
Certain works and subject
matter are expressly
excluded from protectionunder the Copyright Act,
regardless of their
originality, creativity and
fixation.
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Do you have anyquestions? Please
contact
Nihal Yilmaz at
How do we protectyour fonts?
Legal action againstinfringers if nothing else
helps
End User LicenseAgreements with detailedexplanations, dos and
donts
Innovation new designs
Innovation revivals
Innovation new techno-logies
Registration ofTrademarks, design andcopyright whereappropriate
Constant policing ofwebsites and products
Dissuasion with ceaseand decist order for thefuture
Linotype Library
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Adding and and TM
This is the copy in 17 pt.
For blank lines betweentwo statements use half
value.
FontLab allows you toadd the copyright and thetrademark informationinto the font data
Adding Copyrightand Trademark
Notices to your
Fonts
