Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Intellectual property definition

What does Intellectual property mean? Intellectual property describes intangible legal rights in creative, technical and branding outputs used and enforced in commercial practice, often abbreviated to IP or IPR. In the UK and Ireland the term is descriptive rather than a single statutory definition; discrete rights arise under specific regimes, typically including copyright, patents, trade marks, registered and unregistered designs, database right, trade secrets and confidential information, and the common law tort of passing off. These rights are territorial, generally time‑limited (trade secrets/confidential information can subsist indefinitely if secrecy is maintained), and confer exclusive rights that can be licensed, assigned, charged as security and...

Fonts and Typefaces in the UK: IP Rights, Licensing, Sourcing and Compliance for Commercial Use

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

Practice notes

Typography sits at the heart of a brand’s identity; choosing a distinctive typeface helps a company stand out from competitors. Many organisations adopt or commission a specific typeface for use across print and digital channels to drive consistency and support a recognisable brand. This Practice Note offers legal and practical guidance on fonts and typefaces. It addresses the following areas:

Definitions of fonts and typefaces
intellectual property (IP) rights in fonts and typefaces
Sourcing fonts and typefaces—legal considerations, typical licence terms, and common issues when obtaining fonts and typefaces

Fonts and typefaces—definitions

The difference between the words font and typeface matters from a legal perspective (see the section on ‘IP protection’ below), though in everyday use they are frequently treated as the same.

Typeface

A typeface is a collection of letters, numerals and characters designed with a consistent, particular style that determines how text looks. Times New Roman is a familiar example. In Lish v The Northern Block, the judge characterised a typeface as a body of individual glyphs forming a language system—such as an alphabet, numbers and punctuation marks—where each character may appear in multiple glyphs, representing upper and...

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Jessica Stretch

Jessica is senior intellectual property lawyer with over 10 years of experience, advising on all aspects of trade marks, passing off, copyright, designs and domain names. Her practice covers contentious and non-contentious IP with a particular focus on brand clearance, anti-counterfeiting and digital media. Jessica works as a freelance IP lawyer, primarily with technology companies including eBay and King. She began her career as an IP litigator at Osborne Clarke LLP and Kemp Little, followed by a professional support role at LexisNexis UK. ...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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