Theory and practice of intellectual property
№ 3 / 2018

ISSN (Print) 2308-0361
ISSN (Online) 2519-2744

PDF (Ukrainian)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33731/32018.156005

Published      2018-06-26

Peculiarities of legal protection of fonts by intellectual property law

Kostiantyn Zerov
Ukraine

Abstract
The article deals with the peculiarities of the legal protection of typefaces with the help of various institutions of intellectual property law: industrial designs, copyright, trademarks and trade secrets. It is concluded that fonts can be protected as industrial designs in class 18-03 of the International Classification of Industrial Designs. It is also determined that the specifics of the legal protection of fonts by copyright in modern conditions consists in their dualistic nature: on the one hand, fonts are independent objects of copyright and are protected as graphic works, (сomputer bitmap font is a digital form of expression of a typeface and therefore also protected as a graphic work); on the other hand, computer vector fonts are subject to legal protection as computer programs. In the Institute of trademarks, the font can be considered as a) goods of the 09th and 16th classes according to the ICGS, b) the distinguishing characteristic of the designation, c) the work that is reproduced in the mark. Legal protection of the source code of computer fonts is possible through the Institute of trade secrets.

Keywords: font, typeface, font, copyright, trademark, industrial design