Whether it is an infringement depends on whether the modified font is original.

Font libraries are computer software, computer programs stipulated in Article 3 (1) of the "Computer Software Protection Regulations", and are works within the meaning of copyright law.

Computer fonts that reach a certain level of originality are generally classified as works of art, thus constituting works protected by copyright law. If the font you use is not protected by copyright, even if it is created by someone else, your use does not constitute infringement.

This can be obtained through the following cases:

In 2017, Peking University Founder discovered that the packaging of a product from Zhou's Shunfa Company displayed nine words "Whole grains and nutritious oatmeal" The unauthorized use of the simplified Chinese characters of Fangzheng has infringed upon its copyright, and Zhou's Shunfa Company was sued to the Intermediate People's Court of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province.

In March 2018, the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People’s Court held after review that "Founder Qian Style Series (Xing Qian, Zhong Qian, Coarse Qian)" is a font adapted from Peking University Founder, and its font design has unique The artistic style has the characteristics of an art work in the copyright law, and the copyright of a single character should be consistent with the Founder Qian style series, and the defendant has copyright infringement.

Subsequently, Zhou Shunfa Company refused to accept the first-instance judgment and appealed to the Hebei High Court.

After hearing, the Hebei High People's Court held that the focus of the case was: whether the Qian style calligraphy was a work of art within the meaning of copyright law; and whether Zhou's Shunfa Company's actions constituted infringement.

After trial, the court held that although the strokes and structure of Chinese characters were in the public domain and their design space was quite limited, the Qianti characters involved in the case were based on the basic strokes of Chinese characters. Once again, the basic strokes were (Horizontal, vertical, curved, hook, etc.) Adaptation of different thicknesses, lengths, curvatures and distinctive artistic connections between strokes has formed a complete font system that is significantly different from the existing public domain text strokes.

At the same time, even if individual characters in the Qianti font library are examined individually, such as the character "五" involved in the case, the originality is not outstanding. But looking at it in the overall font library, the line characteristics of its character strokes are in line with the characteristics of other characters in the Qianti font library, and it does not affect the artistic beauty and originality of other Qianti characters.

If the originality and artistic beauty are obvious, the Fangzhengqian calligraphy constitutes an art work under the Copyright Law. The defendant can completely use other free fonts to meet the purpose of production and sales. The Qianti characters involved in the case are not the only font expressions.

To sum up, the court determined that Zhou’s Shunfa Company’s behavior constituted infringement, and the company was required to pay compensation of approximately 5,555 yuan per word.

Three points can be summarized from these two cases:

1. Judge whether the font is original by the thickness, length, curvature, and radical ratio of the font strokes.

2. Original fonts with unique artistic beauty will be protected by copyright law as works of art.

3. If there is no obvious difference between the infringing font and the copyright owner's font in terms of the overall structure of the glyphs, the ratio of radicals, the thickness, length, and straightness of the strokes, the font can be deemed to be infringing.

Extended information:

Chinese printed fonts and their characters can be divided into four categories:

1. Fonts that have exceeded the legal protection period of copyright are no longer available. and then enjoy copyright property rights. For example, traditional fonts such as bold, regular, Song, and imitation Song.

2. Fonts that are improved on the basis of traditional fonts, but the degree of improvement does not reach a high degree of originality. These Chinese fonts and their individual characters do not enjoy copyright property rights according to law.

3. A font that is improved on the basis of traditional fonts and has been improved to a high degree of originality. If these fonts are still within the legal protection period of copyright, they enjoy copyright property rights.

4. New type fonts that are based on innovation and have reached a high degree of originality, such as "Fangzheng Qian" involved in the copyright infringement case of Founder v. Procter & Gamble Rejoice, and the "Fangzheng Qianti" involved in the copyright infringement case of Hanyi Company v. Shuangfei Company "Hanyi Xiuying Style" and "Jinglei Style" hand-created by Xu Jinglei. These original Chinese characters are still within the statutory protection period of copyright and enjoy copyright property rights in accordance with the law.

People's Daily Online--Although the font is small, the copyright issue is big