By Thomas Phinney
Note: Consult your attorney for advice on any particular legal matter. No reader should act, or refrain from acting, on the basis of this article, without seeking advice from legal counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.
Whether you use fonts as a graphic or web designer, or are perhaps starting to make fonts, understanding the legal issues around them is important. What are font lawsuits about, what legal protections do fonts have and how does it affect you whether you use fonts or make them?
Font lawsuits take many forms. Some are within a company, such as when Tobias Frere-Jones sued Jonathan Hoefler. Some are business disputes between companies in the font business, whether around distribution/relicensing deals, making derivative fonts and selling them (Adobe v SSi), making similar fonts (ITC v Monotype), or allowing fonts to be embedded in documents (Monotype v Adobe).