Copyright Buyout?

Paul Smith

What to charge for copyright buyout of said font design.

General rule of thumb I believe is 100% of the original design fee.

Does that sound about right?

Yªssin Bªggªr

It's a business decision. If the typeface has 600% potential value on the retail market, 100% sounds it's not good. If it has 10% market value then it's great. It depends.

Thierry Blancpain

"It depends" is exactly correct. If we’re speaking of a complete design defined in multiple weights, I’d never sell a complete buyout for 100% of the design fee.

SiDaniels

Also check for a clause in the agreement that restricts you from designing a similar font in the future. :-) To the judges and lawyers (with three exceptions) all fonts look the same.

JoyceKetterer

@Paul Smith It is a business decision for you alone to make.   There are definitely arguments for and against all sorts of scenarios here and there's no right answer.  Sometimes, for instance, it's a good idea to take a loss for a really high profile use that will market your studio.

At the stage we are at and given our focus on retail sales as our main business - I've said before -  that we will grant "permanent exclusivity" with a clause that it will fall away (and they retain all other rights) in the event of five consecutive years with no observable use.  

Our reasons for this are twofold:
1.  Again because of our business model, even if the exclusivity evaporates 50 years from now the heirs to our company many extract some additional value from it

2.  There may be additional high value uses in the life of the license we can not anticipate now that we would not want to grant under the current fee.  If we assign rights we lose that control.

Also, with fonts there is no "general rule of thumb" for for pricing or licensing - and I don't think there should be.

Ray Larabie

I've agreed to 100% of the original design fee for corporate dingbats, experimental alphabets and other nonsalables.