trademark and copyright research

What Is Copyright?

AIGA, the professional association for design, defines copyright as:

“The exclusive right to control reproduction and commercial exploitation of your creative work. Copyright protects any kind of artwork, including illustrations, photographs and graphic design. Except under certain circumstances (see “work made for hire” section), you own the copyright in your work at the moment you create it in a “fixed form of expression.” A fixed form of expression is any tangible medium that can be perceived by humans, including traditional forms—such as paintings, sculptures, writings—and new forms that require a machine to perceive (e.g., GIF files, CDs, websites).

Source: AIGA Copyright Basics For Graphic Designers

I am not going to go into the basics of copyright here, as you can read about that in the link above but I would like to bring up some areas worthy of discussion…

Copyright Laws In Logo Design

Based on the definition given by AIGA above, you own the copyright of your own design once “you create it in a “fixed” form of expression” but the question is where can you draw this line?

For example, say I am going to design a logotype (ie. a logo that is made out of a typeface only)… this means I will have to use a typeface designed by another designer. Assuming I have paid for the license of that particular typeface, does this give me exclusive rights to change / alter the typeface and then resell it onto a client?

The closest answer I came across was found in this article titled Can We Use Fonts In Logo Design? by Mark Moulton, of the Graphic Artists Guild.

It is true that the USA Copyright Office does not copyright typeface design. However, that does not mean that typeface does not have some restrictions. Specifically in the Copyright Ruling of 1988 it says regarding typefaces: “Useful articles are not protected except to the extent the articles contain artistic features capable of existing separately and independently of the overall utilitarian shape. Variations of typographic ornamentation [or] “mere lettering” are not copyrightable.”