A new symbol for design (and font) protection

Michael Gills
Michael Gills Posts: 4
in Type Business
Has anyone else come across this article on Linkedin about a new (D) symbol (like ©, ® and ™️), which, apparently, the European Parliament is proposing to introduce? Or has this been around a while and I just haven't seen it before?

I presume it would only offer protection within the EU. And if it's meant to protect a typeface design, would it appear after the name?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/here-comes-new-symbol-design-font-protection-production-type-44yie/

(I clicked on the "source" link, but it's in French.)
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Comments

  • George Thomas
    George Thomas Posts: 644
    Send it through Google Translate; it is quite lengthy.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,137
    edited August 4
    would it appear after the name?
    If akin to the copyright and publication symbol, it would be associated with the design rights holder and date, not the typeface name (which would still be associated with trademark). In that case, I would expect it to come first as with the copyright symbol, so e.g. ‘Ⓓ 2024 Michael Gills’.

    The term of the proposed design protection is 5 years, extendable in 5-year increments to 25 years. It sounds similar to design patent registration in the US or industrial design registration in Canada, i.e. a shorter period of time than copyright, and not automatic, i.e. granted through registration rather than being presumed.

    PS. The EU parliament document seems not explicitly to mention typefaces or fonts, so I wonder how certain it is that they would be accepted for registration, and also how this interacts with existing copyright protection for typeface design in the EU. In the US, design patent registration is granted to typeface design instead of copyright.
  • Denis Moyogo Jacquerye
    Denis Moyogo Jacquerye Posts: 187
    edited August 5
    English is an official language of the EU. The English version of the source is https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2024-0165_EN.html and other translations can be accessed, here with the language buttons at the top.

    The relevant article is

    Article 24

    Registration symbol

    The holder of a registered design right may inform the public that the design is registered by displaying on the product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied the letter D enclosed within a circle. Such design notice may be accompanied by the registration number of the design or hyperlinked to the entry of the design in the register.


  • Ray Larabie
    Ray Larabie Posts: 1,425
    What's the Unicode value for this symbol?
  • Typedesigner
    Typedesigner Posts: 47
    Ray Larabie said:
    What's the Unicode value for this symbol?
    There are even two symbols in Unicode: „Ⓓ“ (U+24B9) and „ⓓ“ (U+24D3).
    These symbols have been around since Unicode-Version: 1.1 (Juni 1993)
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,137
    Article 24

    Registration symbol

    The holder of a registered design right may inform the public that the design is registered by displaying on the product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied the letter D enclosed within a circle. Such design notice may be accompanied by the registration number of the design or hyperlinked to the entry of the design in the register.
    Interesting. So perhaps functioning more like the ® symbol than the © symbol.
  • Denis Moyogo Jacquerye
    Denis Moyogo Jacquerye Posts: 187
    edited August 7
    The USA Vessel Hull Design Protection Act of 1998 or Canada’s Industrial Design Act of 1985 already mentioned this symbol.

    What's the Unicode value for this symbol?
    While Ⓓ U+24B9 can be used, it’s not great. The similar 🆭 MASK WORK SYMBOL was proposed in 2018 and accepted because it was “consistent with other similar circled letters that have legal meaning”.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,137
    I think we have a really alarming /.notdef situation:

  • Eris Alar
    Eris Alar Posts: 454
    John Hudson said:
    I think we have a really alarming /.notdef situation:

    Haha I got this too and chuckled 
  • PabloImpallari
    PabloImpallari Posts: 802
    Best .notdef ever!
  • James Hultquist-Todd
    James Hultquist-Todd Posts: 416
    Ha! I’ve been using that same design since 2015 and this is the first time anyone’s commented about it.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,137
    I would say it looks too much like an emoji.

    Some of the older Microsoft fonts had unique and creative /.notdef glyphs, but they ended up being replaced with standard ones because users were confused about whether what they were seeing was intentional.

  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,851
    I was confused at first because I thought the notdef WAS the “mask work symbol”.  :/
  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,429
    The term of the proposed design protection is 

    I'm confused, design rights have been available in the EU for a long time, John?

    BTW in https://github.com/fonttools/fontbakery/issues/4770 I began to plan for eliminating non-standard notdef designs from the Google Fonts library. 
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,137
    I'm confused, design rights have been available in the EU for a long time, John?

    As I wrote, I don’t know how this new design registration mechanism differs from copyright protection as applied to design, which also exists in the EU. As I also pointed out, the documentation nowhere mentions typeface designs or fonts, so it is possible that it is intended for different kinds of design that are not covered by copyright in the way that typeface design rights are.
  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,429
    I don’t know how this new design registration mechanism differs from copyright protection as applied to design, which also exists in the EU. 
    They are indeed different, and my point stands :smile:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_design

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