I found a font on this website which I really like and would like to buy it and use it for my business logo. I would like the buy the font off of the owner so I can copyright it for my business. How would I go about doing so?

Thanks in advance,
Symaticc

If the font is designated as free or public domain, you can use it for your business logo without first obtaining permission from the designer. In these cases, it would be good etiquette to inform the designer of how you plan to use their work, but that would be optional on your part.

If the font is designated as free for personal use or donationware, the terms for commercial use should be contained in a supplemental file in the download .zip file, or in the Note of the author section on the details page, (click on the banner with the text display of the font name to go to the details page).

If the terms of use are not defined in one or both of those locations, click on the designer's name on the details page. This will show you his/her/their home page, and links to see their profile, or to send them a private message.

If there is no indication of the terms of use, make a new post in this thread, with the name of the font and a link to the details page, and someone may be able to assist you. Your inquiry is too vague for anyone to provide a direct answer that would apply to all fonts hosted by DaFont.

In all cases where a payment is required to use a font commercially, the payment is made by the user to the designer. DaFont does not sell fonts, nor does it collect money on behalf of the designers whose work is hosted here. In some cases, however, there will be a link to which payment for commercial use can be made through PayPal, or a similar online account.

Symaticc is talking about copyright transfer, not about a license to use the font. Copyright transfer of a font on dafont doesn't make much sense though, as it has probably already been downloaded by thousands and through the crappy copycat sites is and will be available in the wild. The one who would benefit from such a transfer would be the designer, several thousands Euro in the pocket in one go. Not Symaticc who paid the money for a copyright he can not protect.
If Symaticc wants a font specially and only for him, he'd better have one made for him and pay the price for design and copyright transfer.

I don't agree - I think he just wants a commercial license. I can see how his request could be interpreted both ways, but I think my understanding of the nuances of Canadian colloquial grammar exceeds yours.

Hm nono, koeikat is correct. I wanted to do a copyright transfer of the font. It's fine if others already have it though, because I'm planning on creating a site which I think has potential to be known by A Lot of people and I want to be able to copyright the font so that after my company is created and if it is known, then people don't start using the font. Because after if I do a copyright transfer, then even if there are 100,000+ people who have the font downloaded, they still won't be able to use it for their business because if I find that they are using it, I can tell them not to, right?

But what koeiekat said might be a better idea. I just wanted to buy the font because there are so many fonts out that that no matter what font I try to create, it would probably already look like an existing font which is already copyrighted, correct? Because I just want a simple nice font, nothing fancy. Is it okay if I create my own font and if it looks really similar to an existing font?

Right ... indeed. But only in the fairytale dept


As long as you do not alter or modify an existing font without the author's permission.

If you have a particular font in mind - and it seems so you have - why not ask the author of that font to make a modification for you and then sell that modified font, including copyright, to you. Everybody happy

Hm interesting, okay perfect, thanks.

I'm first going to try to create my own and if I find that it is too hard, then I might just go to the author of the font I want and talk to him about purchasing it.
But anyways, the author I want to purchase the font from is WSI (http://www.dafont.com/wsi.d37).. I can't seem to find the button where I can send him a message. Where is the button to send him a message agian? :$

http://www.weatherlysystems.com/

Hm, interesting. Okay I will just create my own font then, but yea, thanks for the help!

Typefaces aren't copyrightable in most countries, including the United States.

If you acquire the copyright to a font, you only acquire the copyright to the font-FILE, (the .ttf or .eot or what have you), because they hilariously qualify as computer software.
People can still imitate the TYPEFACE though, i.e. the design of the font. That's why every successful font has numerous clones under different names (as names of fonts/typefaces are of course trademarkable).

You might be able to acquire a design patent or trade dress to a font in specific combinations of colors, shapes and such, i.e. as part of a logo. So, for example, you can use the Catull typeface as you please, but using it in blue, red, green and yellow letters would very quickly infringe on Google's logo trademark.

Wrong.

Wrong again. One does not acquire the copyright to the font-FILE. One acquires a license to use the font.

And wrong again. A typeface design (the letterform) is protected (copyrighted) under the Convention of Bern. The only main difference in the different countries Authorship/Copyright laws is the duration of this protection.

Finally, almost correct. Read trade dress as trademark.

Before you post any more smilies, read this:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=UNESCO_Font_Lic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain#Fonts

Typesfaces are not copyrightable in the US and most other countries. You can apply for a Design Patent, though I would reckon the number of fonts on this website that are patented is under 1%.

And unless your typeface is very original, don't expect a design patent to hold up in court. Lucida is patented, but they haven't done anything against millions of sans-serif typefaces that look the same, probably because Lucida looks hardly any different than earlier typefaces like Arial, Helvetica or Frutiger.

There have only been two prominent trials in this area. Both revolved around the infringing companies copying the font-files and just renaming and/or manipulating them. That is illegal because of the "software" aspect of fonts.

But if a font designer sits down and just imitates a font, there is just about nothing you can do. Because the shape of letters is fundamentally dictated by the Latin Alphabet. You can't claim monopoly on that.

Reference Wikipedia

You know johnnypalto, you don't know shit. So before you pull up your pants next time, wipe your ass.
No smiley needed ... uhh

Good grief, people...

http://blog.crowdspring.com/2011/03/font-law-licensing/
http://nwalsh.com/comp.fonts/FAQ/cf_13.htm
http://intellectual-property.lawyers.com/intellectual-property-licensing/Company-Sues-Over-Unauthorized-Use-of-Its-Fonts.html

Now find me a source that contradicts me.

I have provided multiple sources now that clearly point you out as dumb.

Educate yourself or leave this conversation.

Try to to back to school and get yourself a level that allows you to to go to university. Start studying law, concentrate on intellectual ownership and write a thesis on that. At your level it will take you 6 to 8 years to do so. Then come back to this post and see how stupid you were. Then you will realize that when The Kat says you are wrong, you are wrong. Very wrong indeed.

you're not American.

http://www.vblank.ch/articles/font-protection/Schriftschutz.pdf

Boy, don't pretend you have any kind of academic education. If you had, you could contribute to a discussion with facts and not just a slew of ad hominem attacks.

I'm not Swiss either. I'm a Syrian national currently living in Germany, but I've lived in The Netherlands, The U.K. and Norway and if all goes well, I'll be living in Indonesia soon.

Have you read the source you linked?
It's actually one big opinion piece.

And KAPITEL III § 4 reads:

"Copyright protection of text typefaces is denied by majority academic opinion."

I.e.: nobody has ever actually tried it in court, hence there are no verdicts, but law academics predominantly doubt it would work.

You will also notice when you read the Licence Agreements of fonts, e.g. from Monotype or Linotype, they -at least those I have cared to read...- only deal with the FONT SOFTWARE, never the typeface.

---
I agree that very fancy presentational typefaces COULD enjoy some sort of design patent protection, but with millions of fonts based on the Latin alphabet in the wild, it's gonna be tough not to run into some sort of prior art. The more extravagant your font gets, the more likely it would hold up in court.

Text fonts, however, have no chance at all. The differences between Helvetica, Frutiger, Lucida, Arial ... they are so small. If you wanted to patent the design, you'd have to speciy what made them special. Why your modifications weren't trivial, or obvious. You'd also have to state what the "Base" is, i.e. what is the "Natural Form" of the Latin Alphabet from which you derived you work. Adrian Frutiger might make a case for his uppercase Q, but who's to say that is not what a Latin Q is supposed to look like?