Jocelyn:
THE QUICK ANSWER:
Laws vary from nation to nation: what is legal somewhere may not be elsewhere.
For example: in the United States, typeface designs are not generally protected by copyright or patent, but font software code can be copyrighted and typeface names can be trademarked. But in other countries, typeface designs are protected by patent.
All the Tensentype typefaces available on Adobe Fonts should carry the same licensing terms as all the other typefaces on the service. As Neelam points out, here’s a summary of what you can and cannot do:
https://www.adobe.com/products/type/font-licensing/licensing-faq.html
If you have concerns about typefaces available from a specific typefoundry, it may be best to use typefaces from other foundries. Fortunately, Adobe Fonts does have a decent range of both Simplified and Traditional Chinese fonts.
THE MORE DETAILED ANSWER:
Tensentype does have a good variety of creative typeface designs to choose from, including MeiHeiJ that’s illustrated in your screenshot:
https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/tensentype-meiheij
If you scroll down to the ‘Licensing’ section of its webpage of Adobe Fonts, you’ll find a quick summary of what you can and cannot do with MeiHeiJ. The Adobe Fonts licence is very much like many other typefoundries’ traditional licences: if you’re actively using a font, you need to pay to license it.
In other words: building a document in InDesign using Tensentype’s MeiHeiJ for formatting text means that the font needs to be installed on your computer. You’re the active user, creating new text using MeiHeiJ.
If you then produce a PDF file of that InDesign document and publish it, your readers don’t need MeiHeiJ actively installed on their computers to see an accurate copy of your document. InDesign will embed the necessary characters from MeiHeiJ into the PDF file, preserving the layout’s appearance.
The same applies to vector logos, bitmap artwork, video and websites that use MeiHeiJ: viewers don’t need an active copy of the font installed, and therefore don’t need to license it.
But the Adobe Fonts licence doesn’t cover every situation. Let’s say that you want to create a mobile application for Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. You choose to use MeiHeiJ for typesetting text in the application’s interface. This requires that the MeiHeiJ font file is included as part of the application, because the interface will need to actively generate text. That means that anyone who uses the application is an active user – and therefore needs to be licensed to use MeiHeiJ.
In cases like this, it would be very difficult for Tensentype to get every application user to license MeiHeiJ separately. So the typefoundry will have special forms of licensing available for the application publisher to purchase, so that their users are covered. This form of licensing is customized: with pricing typically based upon the number of application users, and only directly available from the typefoundry rather than Adobe Fonts.
It could be possible that the example of the Taiwanese user you mention who got sued is using MeiHeiJ in a way that’s not covered by the Adobe Fonts licence. If that’s the case, then Tensentype is within their rights to demand that the user license MeiHeiJ correctly.
But if Tensentype claims that they haven’t granted Adobe the legal right to make their fonts available on the Adobe Fonts service, then that’s a matter between Tensentype and Adobe. Tensentype can always decide to remove their typefaces from Adobe Fonts, but these fonts still remain available as of today (2 September 2022).
If you would prefer to license Tensentype fonts directly – or need special licensing terms not covered by the Adobe Fonts licence – visit jpFonts’ website:
https://www.jpfonts.com/chinese-fonts/tensentype
If you’re concerned about licensing typefaces from a specific typefoundry, then it’s probably better to choose another foundry. There are hundreds of thousands of fonts available today, and there’s little reason why you should use a typeface if the licensing terms don’t meet your practical needs.
Over the years, certain typefoundries have earned a reputation for either having very restrictive and expensive licensing, or for vigorously enforcing their licensing terms using the legal system. Experienced designers here in North America know which typefoundries do this, and typically don’t license their typefaces unless the client requires it. Experienced designers who work mainly with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean typefaces will have similar knowledge about CJK typefoundries and font licences; consult your colleagues to find out who they are.
And keep in mind that there are also many typefaces available with open-source licences that allow you to use them however you want. The Source Han Sans typefaces are available on Adobe Fonts:
• https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/source-han-sans-simplified-chinese
• https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/source-han-sans-traditional-chinese
• https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/source-han-serif-hong-kong
Google Fonts also has open-source fonts available for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Hong Kong Chinese:
• https://fonts.google.com/?subset=chinese-simplified
• https://fonts.google.com/?subset=chinese-traditional
• https://fonts.google.com/?subset=chinese-hongkong
Please note that some of the open-source SC and TC typefaces published by Google are also available directly from Adobe Fonts.
I hope that answers your question. If not, please let me know.
Best regards
Andrew
–30–
ANDREW KEITH STRAUSS / ACTP / CTT+ / ACI / ACE / ACP
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