Court Rules There is Copyright in a Font; Microsoft Ordered to pay 512,000 Shekels
21 August 2012
An Israeli court ruling has clarified that fonts are protected by copyright in that country, according to Michael Factor, a patent attorney at Factor Patent Attorneys in Tel Aviv. “Judge Grosskopf has now issued a full ruling on the subject,” Factor says.
“Fonts are copyright protected,” Factor says. “Koren is a copy of the famous font that Eliyahu Koren
developed in the 1950s for printing the Bible which is copyright protected. Koren-Guttman, available in Hebrew Office packages is considered a copy of Koren’s font.”
As of January 1, 2013, Microsoft will no longer be able to provide Koren-Guttman or Narkiss fonts bundled into Microsoft Office software, but Microsoft will not have to recall software distributed that includes the font, says Factor. In addition, Microsoft will have to pay NIS400,000 (US$99,600) in statutory damages and NIS112,000 costs to the plaintiffs, Zvi Rosenerg, Masterfont and Koren Publishers, Factor says.
The statutory damage award was reached by awarding maximum statutory damages under the old
copyright ordinance of NIS20,000, but awarding this sum per font for each software program, and considering variant fonts such as bold and italic as separate infringements, noting that they are separate designed fonts and not created on-the-fly by applying a transformation to the main font.
“The opening phrase of the Bible, ‘In the Beginning, G-d created…’ is shown in both Koren and Microsoft’s variant font. The similarity is quite striking,” says Factor. “Microsoft’s defence was that fonts should be protectable as designs and not as copyright, and where not registered, and therefore are in the public domain. Of course, were the font registered, it would have long ago entered the public domain as design registration in Israel is good for up to 25 years.”
Factor adds that copyright in Israel is for life of author plus 70 years. “Eliyahu Koren passed away in 2001, so it will be a while before his iconic font can be distributed for free,” he says.
“It is not clear that the standard term of copyright protection is appropriate for fonts. Grosskopf is critical of the one size fits all copyright approach but believes that the courts should apply the law, and leaves copyright reform to the Knesset,” said Factor.
