Essential knowledge for designers: What are the free commercial Chinese fonts?

In recent years, some font companies have become more and more active in pursuing font infringement incidents. The majority of designers and enterprises are paying more and more attention to this issue. Founder has attached great importance to the protection of its own intellectual property rights in recent years. From the various lawsuits filed by Founder in recent years, we can also see Founder's attitude towards intellectual property protection.

If the designer uses commercial fonts in the design process, but does not allow customers to purchase font commercial licenses, it will cause copyright infringement. The company that my classmate Bei Piao works for used the fonts (four characters in total) of the Zizi Workshop on Party A’s real estate posters, and lost 6,000 yuan. A friend's company in Shenzhen used Founder's font and lost 8,000 yuan. I also have two clients, both of which have received legal letters from Founder, (the design was not done by me) and compensated for the expenses. There are also companies that have used the logo for many years, and the Chinese characters in the logo have always used the square font, and they have infringed without knowing it. As a result, Fangzheng asked for tens of thousands of yuan in fees every year, and I wanted to cry but had no tears. Of course, there are also friends who have received the lawyer's letter from Founder Company and ignored it, and there is no further follow-up after that.

Then, whether the font infringement compensation is paid by the design company or the enterprise depends on how the contract between the two was signed. Is there a clause in the contract: Party B shall not use copyrighted pictures and fonts in the design, otherwise Party B shall bear the liability for the infringement caused thereby. If there is, then the design company will pay for it.

In my opinion, the number of Chinese characters is large, and the research and development of any font requires a lot of manpower, material and financial resources for the font company, and the fees are understandable. However, domestic laws have not clearly written into the law whether the commercial use of a single font is infringing. The judgment results of font infringement in various courts are not uniform. At the earliest, Fangzheng lost two lawsuits against Blizzard and Procter & Gamble. However, the losing case did not affect the judgment of subsequent similar cases.

Hanyi Company sues Frog Prince Company for its registered trademark,uses the plaintiff’s copyrighted "Xiuying Style" without permission,,,, span>and used the registered trademark on the products it produces and sells, sued the aforementioned two courts to Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court, Nanjing Intermediate Court After the trial, it was held that the two defendants used the registered trademark "城宝宝贝"4of Hanyi Company's "Xiuyingti" font, 4 The individual characters are all original and enjoy the copyright of art works, and the unauthorized commercial use of the font by the two defendants has constituted an infringement and should bear the tort liability. In the end, the Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court made a judgment that the two defendants should stop the infringement immediately and should not continue to use the trademark involved and sell the goods involved in the case; the two defendants must compensate Hanyi Company for economic losses and reasonable expenses4.8 Ten thousand yuan.

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So, which fonts are free for commercial use? I have spent the whole day compiling some free fonts for commercial use! Hope to give you some help.

First of all, Song Ti, Fang Song, Hei Ti, Kai Ti, Li Shu, and You Yuan are fonts that have been used by the public for a long time, and fonts that have been around for a long time are commercially available.

1. Founder free font

Founder Free FontIncludes four fonts: Founder Black, Founder Book Song, Founder Fang Song, and Founder Kai. Free for "Commercial Release" use.

2. Wang Hanzong's free font

Developed and donated by Professor Wang Hanzong, Department of Mathematics, Chung Yuan University, authorized by GPL, free to use. Dear teachers and netizens, you can promote and use it.

3.Arphic Public Authorized Font

4.Siyuan Blackbody

5.Wenquanyi font

6. Seto font

7.Zhanku font

8.Cindy Font

9.Full word library

a. Shuowen Jiezi

b.Blockcase

c.正宋体

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I tried my best to verify that the above fonts are free for commercial use. However, it cannot be guaranteed to be 100% correct. Please double check yourself before use. This article is for informational purposes only. If you find any mistakes, please notify me in time, WeChat ID lifangj3, and I will correct them in time.

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In the legal field, there are two voices of protectionists and opponents on the issue of whether typeface structure does not constitute a work of art.

1. Support the protectionists

Tao Xinliang (Dean of Intellectual Property College of Tongji University)

Fonts can be divided into four categories: The first category is traditional fonts that have no copyright, such as HeiTi, KaiTi, SongTi, FangSongTi, etc. The second category is slightly improved on the basis of the first category of fonts, but the improvement has not reached the height of originality. The third category is a font that has been greatly improved on the basis of the first category of fonts, and its improvement has reached the height of originality. The fourth type is highly original fonts that have never been seen before, such as Fangzheng Qianti and Xu Jinglei's“Jinglei”” span>. The first and second categories are not protected by copyright. The original characters in the third and fourth types of fonts with originality enjoy copyright, and of course, reasonable fees can be charged for their commercial use according to law.

Feng Xiaoqing (Professor of China University of Political Science and Law)

Fonts developed on the basis of resources in the public domain such as official script and regular script are not protected by copyright, but after a certain amount of creative work on this basis, they can now be designed using high-tech means and computer software , resulting in a special typeface, forming an intellectual achievement that can obtain exclusive protection. Forming a unique font based on Chinese characters, if copyright protection is not granted, it may have a great negative effect on specific industries in the country, especially cultural and creative industries, including related high-tech industries. Innovation cannot be protected if it is not protected.

Second, Opposition

Xu Chao (Deputy Director of the Copyright Department of the National Copyright Administration)

Does font composition constitute a work of art? In my opinion, it is not listed or stated in the copyright law, and I think it is not protected, because fonts are an industrial product. 54 of the UK Copyright Act is protected as an industrial copyright. 54 Regarding the font, it also stipulates "the process of typesetting, casting and printing" Does not constitute copyright. The copyright of fonts cannot be compared with works of art. Before the advent of computers, the so-called protection was to prevent others from making the same fonts. No matter if you copied my fonts or copied my characters, it would be an infringement. As for people buying your fonts to print newspapers and advertisements, that has nothing to do with you.

Zhang Yurui (Professor of the Intellectual Property Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

The font library as a whole has copyright, but it is hard to say that individual characters have copyright. There are three levels of fonts. The first level is the creation of fonts. The creation of fonts can be copyrighted. The next level is font tools. From movable type printing to current computer software, font tools are copyrighted. However, the first intellectual property law "Anna Law" has been300 yearsnow, there is no copyright for a single word, and no one asks for money for the words typed by font tools. This is the difference between authoring fonts, font tools, and words typed by font tools. According to international conventions, the right to typefaces is protected to the type-making tools. In the era of lead type, the right to typefaces granted by the Vienna Convention is the type-making tools. This is certain. The copyright law of the United Kingdom stipulates that the right to fonts does not hinder the normal printing of printing results with word-making tools. The creation of fonts is copyrighted, and the font tool is copyrighted, but the characters typed by the font tool are not copyrighted. No country in the world has a second answer to this.

Conclusion:The issue of font protection is still blank in domestic legislation, and there is no consistent international approach. Coupled with the unique characteristics of Chinese characters, this issue is widely debated in intellectual property circles.

Judging from the current situation of font library litigation, the Beijing and Shanghai district courts have a negative attitude towards whether single characters are protected by copyright as works of art. Nanjing Intermediate People's Court and Jiangsu Higher People's Court expressed their support. In the past two sessions, some representatives proposed a motion on this issue, suggesting that when the Copyright Law is amended, original words and fonts should be clearly included in the protection objects of the copyright of art works. However, The draft of the third revision of the Copyright Law still does not address the issue of fonts.

(Note: Text/He Dufeng, Senior Legal Expert of Ant Financial Services Group)

Because the verdicts of font infringement cases are not uniform, designers and business owners should pay attention: do not use non-commercial copyrighted fonts in logos, business names, slogans, etc. Especially some fonts with high originality to avoid the risk of corporate infringement.

So, what is my point?

I support copyrighted fonts. Because, I am a designer and I know how hard it is to design a font library. Moreover, fonts have copyright, so our profession of designers is more needed, and has a place for us. If the copyright of Chinese characters is not protected, no company will develop fonts, and the innovation ability of Chinese characters will be seriously affected. Some companies casually find someone to make a logo of several hundred yuan, and they don’t even design the Chinese characters of the logo, and directly use the commercial copyright font of the font library. Once the company grows bigger and is caught by the font company, it may cause economic losses, and the compensation will be tens of thousands of yuan, which is much more expensive than the logo design fee. Fonts have copyright, so the society needs excellent original designers, and our value can be better reflected.

This is the collection of infringement evidence that Founder sent to an e-commerce company I found on the Internet.

Today, even some Taobao stores have been issued a lawyer's letter. This makes those small businesses caught by the font company feel unfair. Everyone is using it. Why am I the only one? In fact, large companies rarely use copyrighted fonts, because Shuda attracts the wind and is easier to be recruited.

I will not use copyrighted fonts in my current design process. The Chinese standard characters of the logo, corporate slogans, and product names on the packaging are all fonts designed by ourselves. For small explanatory text, or page content, use free commercially licensed fonts. For customers with a budget, will use commercial fonts as needed during the proposal process. Have customers buy fonts from a font company before printing or advertising. However, this rarely happens. The usage fee of a font usually ranges from several hundred to several thousand yuan. Most customers are not willing to pay for fonts in fonts. Therefore, our designers need to create original fonts according to the characteristics of the brand or product.

It is the designer's responsibility to explain font copyright issues to clients.

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