GreenStreet Technologies was sued in the High Court of Justice
by Linotype Library and its parent company Heidelberger
Druckmaschinen. Linotype argued that GreenStreet was infringing the
copyright of the design of four typeface families from the Linotype
Library, entitled Arcadia, Duc de Berry, Herculanum and Neue
Helvetica.
Linotype's claim was based on the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act of 1988. On 24th July Mr Justice Etherton issued an order
against GreenStreet, demanding that it must not commit any further
infringements and that it must deliver up and destroy all
infringing materials and provide Linotype with a comprehensive list
of all parties from whom the fonts were obtained and to whom they
were sold. The issue of damages continues to be pursued.
Linotype had earlier purchased samples of four of GreenStreet
products - 100 Fonts True Type, 500 Fantastic Fonts, 1000
Professional Fonts and 2000 Fonts Collection to gain its evidence
against the company. Linotype considered a total of 122 fonts to
infringe its intellectual property rights, prompting its court
action against the publisher.
In a statement issued yesterday, Bruno Steinert, general manager
of Linotype Library said:
“This judgement against [GreenStreet] marks
an important stage of our fight against font piracy that is rife
among low-cost consumer aimed software products around the world.
The UK is a prime market for high quality fonts and this High Court
order supporting our claim for copyright, particularly in respect
of Neue Helvetica, is a milestone achievement for the whole type
industry. Our policy of pursuing whatever means available to assert
our legal rights is paying off and will continue.”
