Typeface Protection

Fonts have always been treated rather strangely under the law, as befits their rather strange nature: letterforms are indivisibly both useful and artistic. In most countries, and in all countries until recently, utility has taken precedence; i.e., it has been legal to copy fonts without permission or fee.
With the advent of personal computers and desktop publishing, the use of customized typefaces and fonts is becoming commonplace. Companies such as International Typeface Corporation (ITC), Monotype, Apple, Adobe Systems, and Microsoft are heavily involved in the typeface and font industry, employing artisans to develop typefaces and skilled engineers to encode those typefaces into fonts, and licensing the typefaces and fonts into products. Adobe Systems alone spent 5.8 million dollars on typeface production in fiscal 1992 . It may come as a surprise to many to discover that much of the product of this industry is afforded little or no copyright protection. In the view of some typeface designers, the lack of protection has injured designers both economically and artistically.
In India also they are not copyrighted. Even if they were artistic works, since they could
be registered as a design, section 15 (2) of the copyright act barred their registration (since 50 reproductions of the same had already been done).

TYPEFACE
PROTECTION
The main question of typeface protection is: ``Is there anything there worth protecting?'' To that the answer must certainly be: ``Yes.'' Typeface designs are a form of artistic and intellectual property.'' To understand this better, it is helpful to look at who designs type, and what the task requires.
Who makes type designs?
Like other artistic forms, type is created by skilled artisans. They may be called type designers, lettering artists, punch-cutters, calligraphers, or related terms, depending on the milieu in which the designer works and the technology used for making the designs or for producing the type.
(``Type... [continues]

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