Does the use of a character in the font library...
As the current laws and regulations in China do not clearly stipulate the protection of a character and a font library, there has been an ongoing debate about whether the word library and the words in the font library are protected by the Copyright Law and how to characterize them.In practice, completely different judgments have been produced.But at present, the industry has gradually reached a unified understanding,that is, a computer font library as a software work is protected by Copyright Law, and the original characters in the font library are protected by Copyright Law as works of fine art.
Due to the inherent limitations of strokes and structures, the design of Chinese characters is very restricted when it is used for art creation.It is difficult to have originality with distinctive features.Whether a single character can constitute a work of fine art independently shall be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, but any judgment should adhere to the standards of a certain degree of creativity and obvious characteristics.If characters that have unique qualities in stroke and structure and are not the same as or similar to the style of the existing characters in public domain, have obvious originality, they can form works of fine art protected by Copyright Law independently.(https://www.daowen.com)
Without the consent or permission of the right owner, the exploitation of a character in a font library in which the right owner enjoys copyright shall be regarded as an act of infringement and the tortfeasor shall bear the corresponding legal liability for infringement.An important factor when measuring the amount of compensation is whether the use of infringing fonts is for commercial purposes.Once the font is identif ied as a protected work of fine art, the exploitation of original words in advertising design, product packaging, movies, games, webcasts, short videos and other occasions requires the authorization of the right owner.In order to avoid infringement disputes, one must confirm the ownership of the font before using it.In addition, for free download or legal purchase of the character in the font library, it is also necessary for users to pay attention to whether the right owner has restrictions on the scope of use or not.The main ways to avoid infringement are as follows: (1) When using fonts involved by others or fonts owned by others with copyright,you shall obtain authorization to avoid infringement; (2) Use one’s own original design or legally authorized fonts; (3) Use fonts that have entered the public domain, such as the common Songti, Kaiti, Heiti etc.