Fonts are pieces of software that need to be licensed, and font
piracy is one of the lesser known forms of intellectual property
infringement.
China's Founder Electronics is suing WoW
publisher Blizzard Entertainment in a Bejing court over its alleged
use of its fonts in the game. The company said that five Chinese
language fonts were used in the Chinese version of the game, which
was launched in 2005.
WoW is a massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG),
and Blizzard says that it has nine million players across the
world. Founder says that 3.5 million of those are in China.
Founder said that it had lost one billion yuan, or $132 million,
through the alleged unauthorised use of its fonts. It is claiming
one tenth of that in its suit, said a company statement.
Founder says it is the largest provider of Chinese language
fonts in the country. Blizzard is a unit of French media company
Vivendi Universal.
The case will be heard in the Bejing Municipal Higher People's
Court.
Font misuse is a common but rarely discussed form of software
piracy. Software piracy lobby group the Business Software Alliance
(BSA) says that the average computer has 300 unlicensed fonts on
it.
