영국의 글자체 관련 법제 연구

There has been a lot of controversy in Korea until recently regarding the protection of typefaces by copyright law. While there were rulings by the Supreme Court that a typeface design did not correspond to a work, the judgement that recognized a typeface files as a computer program has been firmly established. In addition, the Design Protection Act included typefaces in the scope of goods to protect typeface designs with designs. Nevertheless, discussions about the protection of typefaces have emerged as is was perceived as a social issues that producers of typeface files carried out copyright protection activities through law firms. Under these backgrounds, this paper examines the legal system of the United Kingdom(UK), which protects typeface designs with works of the copyright act and designs of the design act, and compares them with the Korean legal system. In the UK, typefaces can be protected as artistic works under copyright law. Apart from this, the typefaces can be registered as a design by the registered designs act. In addition, registered and unregistered designs are protected within the community by the Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs. In the case of typeface files generally referred to as a font, the legal protection is centered on the typeface design. However, Copyright restrictions on the use in the ordinary course of typeface elements or the application of a limited protection period by 25 years for articles to which typefaces are applied can be regarded as a measure to ensure the interests of users and to prevent disruption of competition in the market. So, the UK appears to be faithful to the protection of the creators of typeface designs and to consider the position of typeface users appropriately. There is a need to promote the development of related industries while creating a healthy and smooth environment for the use of typefaces. Therefore, to explore how the protection method of typefaces suitable for Korea, we should examine thoroughly the current protection system regarding typefaces, and the protection system of typefaces needs to be improved so that proper profits can be returned and incentives are given to the creators of typeface designs, the core of the typefaces. In the process, the UK legislative case could be used as a reference.