Xref: utzoo comp.fonts:100 misc.legal:4626
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!uwmcsd1!marque!gryphon!richard
From: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,misc.legal
Subject: What is that font/who owns tha name
Message-ID: <3574@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Date: 25 Apr 88 03:57:23 GMT
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, Ca.
Lines: 48
Keywords: taxonomy

Since you pack of louts are being no help whatsoever in this matter
(It's been 8 hours since I asked the question :-) we've done some 
foraging around and found a couple of good things.

Who owns the name ?

The conclusion seems to be here, that if you recognize the name, there
is a great chance somebody owns it. I was kinda thrown by compu$serve
which has mac fonts online, some with "famous" names, like cheltenham.

So I figured maybe cheltenham is PD or something.

Wrong.

Seems like anytime anybody went to the lengths of making/selling
a nice font, they trademarked the name. Makes sense. Ahem.

A couple of useful catalogues:

Letraset - $6 at _Walsers_ an art supply store here in L.A. I have
no idea if thet are in other cities, but i suspect so. REAL NICE
catalogue. If it was a computer book, the same thing would be $30.
Nicely done. Gives an example of every character in the set for about
200 fonts. Also lists the trademark name holder. 

All the good ones are taken :-)


Chartpak: $4, not as good as Letraset, but still real neet-o.

The best part is, _Walsers_ gives away these nifty posters by Letraset
that show all 197 fonts they sell, each font name in the font itself.

Its proud display on a conspicuous wall here met with some opposition,
well, more that some, but when I explained that all budding font
artists have one of these hanging in their bedrooms, I got off light.

Sort of.

I'm still not convinced of the lagality of these names though, since
_SINOLA_ is listed as being created by Letraset, yet appears in Dan X.
Solo's _Art Nouveu Decorative Alphabets_, with the disclaimer in the 
book that anything in the book can be used freely. I give up.


-- 
         "They spent all night staring down at the lights of L.A." heh 
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM                          rutgers!marque!gryphon!richard