[Openfontlibrary] design service

[Dave Crossland]

2008/11/5 minombresbond <minombresbond at gmail.com>:
>
> I take this opportunity to ask if you know about scaned images of
> public domain or olds typography catalog resources on the web,

I don't know of other such resources, but if you find them, please
contribute them to the wiki somewhere, such as

http://openfontlibrary.org/wiki/Font_Design#I_want_to_revive_a_historic_design
:-)

http://www.fromoldbooks.org might have some typography..?

> I understand that the glyps of any typeface is not
> 'copyrightable' material in USA

Well, the shapes of letters are not copyrightable in the USA, but they
may be subject to a 14 year "design patent."

> and the rest of the world

Here in the UK there is a 25 year copyright on them. Maybe in Germany
and other places too.

> (except any 'patented' typefaces in any european countrys)

The EU "registered design rights" work similar to "design patents" in
the USA, and last a maximum of 25 years, although they only started in
2003.

> then, I can
> take any 'privative' actual font, printing the font, re-drawing the
> glips, reasign the kerning pairs etc and publish that font (the
> font software) in any free licence.. but this procedure will not be seen
> very well, by my colleagues tipographers...

If you only want the font to be available legally in the USA, perhaps
this is true.

If you want to make a design that is SIMILAR to an existing design,
you can do that straight away, as long as you are sure to change the
fundementals. Monotype did this to some ITC typefaces in the early
1990s for Microsoft, and ITC sued them, and Monotype convinced an
American court that their changes meant they had created new typeface
designs and not copies. The fonts involved in that case are
instructive.

http://www.google.com/search?q=monotype+itc+microsoft+bookman

eg, https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9610&L=typo-l&P=10412

I am not a lawyer and this information is not legal advice.

-- 
Regards,
Dave