Ask HN: Are the visuals of Unicode characters copyrighted?

3 pointsalephnan3 comments

If I were to use an esoteric unicode symbol as a logo, would that be copyrighted?

See https://glarts.org/font-and-typeface-legal-tip-sheet/

I have two questions about this:

1. What is a typeface?

Intuitively it's a collection of types with a particular appearance, but then what is a type? Is it only what could be reproduced by an actual lead type, i.e. no colour emoji? Or does it only cover letters, numbers and punctuation, i.e. no dingbats?

2. What if you do business outside of the United States?

I did my own version of a character widely used, with a small modification to differentiate it, so its copyright belongs to me.

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