A few days ago, I received a fax notification forwarded from a customer, requesting to modify the "Fangzheng Xiqian Simplified" font on the website. All the fonts involved in the website pictures and videos are required to be deleted. I immediately called the customer: Congratulations! Your company's reputation has fully met the requirements of a nationally renowned brand! The next step is the top 500, haha, because Founder has always only looked for the top 500 and nationally renowned brands. Then we had to temporarily change the font on the website to bold, and wait for the customer to negotiate with Founder before dealing with it. Even so, customers still have lingering fears: Isn't black body infringement infringement? Founder has really intimidated many companies.
Big trees attract wind. Last year, when I was responsible for the website construction project of a certain brand of air conditioners in Guangzhou, I encountered the same problem. Founder first sent a fax to the customer, and the customer then faxed us, saying that some of the pictures on the website used "Founder Variety Show Simplified" , and finally had to change it overnight. Today I searched for news about the font lawsuit between Founder and Procter & Gamble, and I was shocked to find that the company has been forced to pay Founder a copyright fee of "10,000 yuan per font per year." Moreover, Founder has also reached out to more companies! It turns out that fonts are also a big industry. How big is this industry?
Huang Xuejun, director of the Founder Font Development Department of Peking University, said: "Well-known companies including Sony, Samsung and Panasonic have purchased Founder's fonts and used them legally in products and advertisements. "Even companies larger than Procter & Gamble have purchased from Founder. font. "Last year alone, more than 100 companies purchased special fonts from Founder. Moreover, more than 2,000 newspapers, as well as numerous magazines and publishing houses across the country have purchase agreements with Founder. The reason why P&G filed a lawsuit with them It’s because “P&G has ignored Founder’s letters and communications” and said, “We are forced to sue. "It's true that no one can stop a gangster who knows martial arts.
When Guangzhou Shidu Interactive signs a website construction contract with a customer, it usually contains such intellectual property protection clauses:
“1. After the formal acceptance of the project, Party A owns all copyrights of the website, and Party B shall provide the source code to Party A so that Party A can complete simple modifications;
2. If a third party accuses a third party of intellectual infringement related to the site pages due to Party B's fault, Party B shall be responsible and ensure that Party A's rights are not damaged;
3. During the cooperation period, Party B shall not disclose the text and picture materials provided by Party A to third parties in any way without the permission of Party A;
4. Party B does not assume any legal responsibility for any legal issues, including intellectual property rights, involved in the text and pictures provided by Party A. "
The series of pictures of the company's products are provided to us by customers, so as Party B, we only need to change the fonts of the text in the pictures for the time being. But the most troublesome thing is the customers. Not only do all the product series of the entire website need to be changed, but also the follow-up Print media, TV advertisements, product packaging, which also involves the advertising company that originally designed the advertisement. The client said: I think I will be busy with these trivial things this week. It's really depressing.
It is reported that among the list of P&G products that have been verified to use Qian's characters, a total of 403 characters used by 63 products are involved in the case. The brands include Rejoice, Sassoon, Safeguard, Crest, Shubao, etc. Founder also claimed RMB 100 million from Blizzard in 2007, but has so far failed. I really want money and I'm crazy! I have a saying for Founder: You can ask for money without losing your life, but you can't ask for money without shame.
In the United States, one of the countries with the most complete copyright protection in the world, there is no so-called copyright protection for fonts. Huang Xuejun said: "Chinese characters are hieroglyphs, and they are integrated with the essence of calligraphy passed down for thousands of years, so they are unique in fonts. "I wonder if English has only 26 letters and cannot be "protected". Then our Chinese characters only have five strokes: horizontal, vertical, left, right, and fold. All Chinese characters are composed of these strokes. You have What qualifications do you have to charge? If you really like calligraphy, spread beauty, and promote so-called national art, then why should you charge high "copyright" fees? If you register with the Copyright Office and wear a vest, you won't be recognized? unreasonable. Very unreasonable.
It seems that everyone will have to be careful when using square fonts in web design in the future. Be careful of this rogue company, Founder.
Original: Guangzhou Shidu Interactive Marketing http://www.10d.cn focuses on Guangzhou website construction services.