Intellectual Property Licensing Suits - A question for Type Designers/Lawyers

Jeremy Dooley
Jeremy Dooley Posts: 67
in Type Business
Here's a question a few out there might be wondering about:

I do not control my licensing; that is handled by distributors. (Myfonts, fonts.com, HypeforType, etc.) As you may know, these distributors do not provide a easily searchable list of who licensed what.

If I come across a prominent use of one of my fonts, how do would I go about authenticating that a license was purchased to use the font?

Most font related lawsuits have to do with uses - for example, a certain license is required, and the use was clearly infringing. 

Would I ask all of my distributors to do a search of their records? How would this be effective, if, say, a generic LLC licensed the product?

Do you just have your lawyer demand the documentation through the legal process?

Thank you,
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Comments

  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    My Fonts sends reports regularly with purchasers name and their email of record.
  • Jeff Levine Fonts
    Jeff Levine Fonts Posts: 13
    In my Terms of Use license I specifically state that NO derivative products (ink stamps, stencils, decals, stick on letters, etc.) may be made from one of my type designs without a specific custom license obtained directly from me.  I let MyFonts and Fontspring handle the ebook, app and other 'specialty' licenses... and as far as I'm concerned, any other use is just for what the font was intended... as a marketing tool.

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