Font Fonts Intellectual property protection is urgent

Source: Internet
Author: User
Keywords Intellectual property protection
Korea's font industry annual income of 30 million U.S. dollars, Japan's Mori company font annual income of more than 100 million yuan; Mona has been listed on the Nasdaq, annual income of more than 100 million U.S. dollars, and most of China's font manufacturers are subject to piracy, but also struggling to survive on the line. Newspaper reporter Lu Xiaohui reported recently, founder V. Procter and Gamble "fluttering soft" product infringement using "Qian body word" second trial trial, both sides on the "' Rejoice ' two word is not counted as fine art works" to debate, but ultimately no results.  The case has been highly concerned by the industry, because it is related to the development of China's font industry. It is reported that the Korean font industry annual income of 30 million U.S. dollars, Japan's mori-ze company font annual income of more than 100 million yuan; Mona has been listed on the Nasdaq, annual revenue of more than 100 million U.S. dollars, and most of the Chinese font manufacturers are still struggling on the survival line.  China's font enterprises where to go? The case of life and death in the relationship industry the head of a font enterprise to reporters said: If the above case of final appeal, it will make the operation of the dismal font industry worse.  The situation is difficult, coupled with no relevant laws on the protection of intellectual property rights of font fonts, there are a group of font enterprises are likely to face the fate of the door. Sun Le, Secretary general of the Chinese Information Society of China, said that if the case founder loses, Font enterprise's innovation enthusiasm will be greatly reduced. "If the intellectual property rights are not protected by the long-term development of the situation, then the future flooded our market, may be the United States, Japan and other foreign manufacturers ' Chinese fonts ', it will be our descendants of sorrow." "is a verdict really that important?"  Is the survival of the font business and employees really that bad? In this respect, the famous font designer Zhu Zhiwei told the reporter a little story: Shenyang a well-known painter 1 weeks can draw a picture, can easily earn 50,000 yuan. However, if the painter to create a set of fonts, at least 1 years, the design of fonts, the font enterprises need to be electronic, the whole process down to spend more than 1 million yuan.  In the creation process, the creator's salary may be only the lowest wage standard. Founder Electronic Font Business Department deputy manager Huang Xuejun told reporters, in Japan, a designer design a font, this life can eat and drink not worry. And China's font designer is basically zero income. Founder Electronics and the famous film star Xu Lei, the development of the body font, genuine software only sold more than 2000 sets, and the market piracy has hundreds of thousands of sets.  Piracy infringement so rampant, so that the interests of enterprises are completely not protected, natural will not be profitable. Because most practitioners and industry enterprises can not get normal returns, but also have no financial support for the follow-up design and development, the country is engaged in the design of the font less than hundred people. Zhu Zhiwei said: "The current use of commercial infringement is too rampant, seriously restricting and affecting the development of the industry, more and more designers change careers, if the situation is not improved and governance, the industry will be in jeopardy." "Whether it damages the public interest in the case of founder V. P & G infringement, the generation of Procter and Gamble"We are not fighting for Procter and Gamble, we are fighting for society," said the lawyer in court. "Zhang Yurui, a researcher at the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if a single word were to be copyrighted, it would be disorderly. "Founder is the computer software, the foregoing of the type typewriter development to today is the software, these all have the intellectual property protection." But a word from a computer is not an artwork, it has no copyright. "P & G believes that they have bought the founder's font in the use of the word" Qian ", so they have the right to use it on the outer packaging.  If the court orders the defendant to compensate the plaintiff for the lawsuit request, will result in the plaintiff to the font "two charges", by virtue of a paper verdict, the plaintiff will obtain the new interest growth point, and this is contrary to the public interest.  Some of the public also expressed a similar concern, if the gamble loses the lawsuit, is not after everyone uses founder's font, even if only simple document editors must pay? In this respect, Huang Xuejun said: There is a difference between the use of fonts and the use of fonts by the general public for business purposes. It is understood that in the public domain, most of the software will be preloaded with multiple sets of fonts. These fonts have been purchased by software developers and font providers before the software was sold, so there is no question of charging again.  It is a commercial interest, not a public interest, for the company to reproduce and exhibit the character of Qian in the founder's font and for commercial purposes. In response to public concerns, Huang Xuejun said that bold, XXFarEastFont-Arial, imitation, italics and other popular fonts have been defined as the public domain of free fonts, these fonts can meet the daily life of more than 90% of the needs, including books, newspapers, publishing and distribution of commercial activities.  And for other fonts, because the computer input font is the creation of human labor results, so the commercial use of pay is also logical. In addition, Huang Xuejun also pointed out that our font is not designed to design a program, the software can automatically generate words.  All the words are designed by the designer according to the aesthetic principle, such design should be protected. Feng, director of the Intangible Asset Management Research Center of CESL, also believes that the protection of specific fonts is not a monopoly of Chinese characters, such as the use of "fluttering" two words, not necessarily with the word "fluttering", you can use other fonts.  If the font is really popular, and many people are willing to use it, that the font is highly innovative, intellectual property rights should encourage and protect innovation. Expect the legal force to solve the problem completely, only through the judicial channels.  In this respect, insiders also gave their own suggestions. Wu, an associate professor at Tsinghua University Law School and a member of the Intellectual Property Center at Tsinghua University Law School, said: "A particular problem with fonts and typefaces is that there is no definitive answer to its protection in judicial practice, such as whether there are differences in the protection of individual fonts." Zhang Ping, director of the National Digital rights research Base, said the current approach to font protection was different for every country. United KingdomThe copyright law expressly protects the typeface as a work of art, and Germany and Italy give the font intellectual property protection in the industrial design legislation, and the United States gives copyright protection to the software. Wu said that the font and fonts involved in 4 aspects: one is a single font, the second is the font, fonts put together is the library; the third is the software, the font to the computer running on the software problem; one is data, software runs through the computer and translates into data. "These 4 areas can be protected. In accordance with the law, an ingenious expression of thought can be protected by copyright law, while a single typeface is an expression and originality, so it should also be protected.  From the perspective of industry, the basic principles of copyright law and the public interest, I think there is no obstacle to giving font protection. Rengan, Director of China Copyright Association, said that the process of font design is complex and painstaking, and that the hard work in font design should be respected and protected under the framework of existing national legal systems. On the one hand, fonts can be protected as calligraphy works in art works, and on the other hand, they can be protected as designs. In addition, fonts can also be protected as database software.
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