![]() This is just a short list, as there are many other foundries online. The best way to avoid liability is to seek out reputable font foundries, including Font Bureau,, Typotheque, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, MyFonts and FontShop. Thus, it can be very risky to download and use one of these fonts unless you personally know the creator and obtain permission. ![]() Often, well-known “free” fonts are actually just pirated versions-unauthorized copies of someone else’s design. If you don’t go through a foundry, be very careful about downloading “free” fonts from other sites around the Internet. Going beyond your license can lead to liability. This is particularly important if you have selected a free typeface, as those licenses are generally the most restrictive. Be sure to read your license agreement carefully, because it will often limit what you can and cannot do with the typeface and font you have licensed. Typeface licenses are generally granted per computer or per user, and will explicitly state what the licensee can and cannot do with the typeface-for instance, whether the typeface can be used in advertising, on TV, in print, on merchandise, or online. If you do not want to create your own, licensing a typeface from a foundry can be a good way to go. A type foundry’s business model usually works by selling licensing rights to download and use a particular font program (and to display the typeface it produces), though some foundries offer typefaces for free download. Type foundries are online warehouses containing many digital typefaces that are available for downloading, usually for a premium. But for those who use typefaces professionally, whether as incorporated in works of art, as part of graphic designs on posters or other products, or through artistic web design, companies called “type foundries” are the biggest online source of typefaces. There are many free fonts available online for download-thousands of them, in fact. ![]() However, there are some basic tips artists of all sorts can use to better protect themselves against claims of copyright infringement. When you use a font, whether it is in a logo, on a brochure, used to display film credits, or even in art, you may be inadvertently putting yourself at risk if you don’t have the rights to use that font. All these legal distinctions have important consequences both for those who would like to use a typeface or font created by someone else, and for the designers who create them and would like to protect their work. A trademark protects what a typeface is called, a copyright protects how a font program is written, and a design patent protects letter design-how the letters appear. Finally, a font name can be trademarked-for example, the name of the commonly used typeface “Palatino” is a registered trademark. ![]() The first-ever design patent was actually granted for a typeface. That court also held that typefaces are ineligible for copyright registration, but are eligible for patent protection through a design patent. District Court for the Northern District of California held that font programs are protectable by copyright. The Code of Federal Regulations explicitly provides that “typeface as typeface” is not protectable. In the United States, fonts are protectable under copyright law. So what most people refer to as “fonts” are actually typefaces! A font, on the other hand, is the computer program that tells the printer or computer display how a letter or character is supposed to be shown. Something like “Times New Roman” or “Comic Sans MS” is a typeface. Put more simply, typeface refers to the way a set of letters or numbers appears, whether on a page or a computer monitor. A typeface is a set of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks whose forms are related by repeating certain design elements that are consistently applied.
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