| Computer font industries make more efforts into the assertion of their rights,which make litigation related to computer fonts occur frequently. Because legislationis not clear and courts fined varying in judicial practice, theorists have a fiercediscussion on the legal status and legal protection of computer fonts. This paper baseon the summary of the academic point of view, and take Beijing Founder Co. v.Guangzhou Procter&Gamble Co. font infringement as a guide to the exploration ofthe problem concerning the legal status and the legal protection of the computer fonts.The first part details the facts of Founder v. Guangzhou Procter&Gamble andBeijing Carrefour Commercial Co., Ltd., synthesize the typical cases related tocomputer fonts infringement, and thus we can have a relatively overall understandingof the infringement patterns and judgments of such cases in our judicial practice.The second part defines the concept of the computer font, font library, and fontsoftware, in order to discuss in the following parts.The third part analyzes the legal attributes of word computer font、font libraryand font software of computer font. Through analysis of the originality andfunctionality of word computer font, the writer believes that except for a fewcomputer fonts which are very creative, distinctive and full of aesthetic meaning,word computer fonts are not belonging to art work in principle, so they should not beprotected by copyright. And, in terms of social effects, the paper indicates that givingno copyright protection to individual character does not affect the font industry, whileprotecting individual character may infringe the public domain. After analyzing thelogic of the relationship between individual character and font library and the processof font library generated, the writer indicate that the production of font library is akind of simple labor rather than creation, font library is unable to obtain the original,so it does not belong to the object of copyright protection. Computer font software isavailable to be protected as an ordinary computer software, but the protection can’textend to the font library and individual character produced from it.The forth part is an exploration of the foreign protective mode of computer fonts.After the analysis of the protective mode of font in United States, Britain and Japan, itcan be used as the reference when building Chinese protective mode.The fifth part is an exploration of the protected mode of word and font library. This section summarizes the path to protect the font. For a few words with originality,they can be protected based on copyright. For the font library and words can’tconstitute copyright works, font developers and users should reach End User LicenseAgreements which clear the user’s scope of authorization. If the font library is usedbeyond the scope of authorization, they can be claimed to burden the liability forbreach of contract. In addition, when the font owners are infringed, they can alsobring infringement proceedings based on "Anti-Unfair Competition Law","TortLiability Law". Finally, the writer recommended that the font should be included inthe database, and the database should be legislative protection separately. |
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