Judge Reverses Self, Axing Copyright Claim in Font-Design Suit

Design platform Zazzle Inc. defeated an artist’s copyright claim over a computer font after a federal judge reversed herself and ruled the artist’s invalid copyrights registrations doom her infringement claim.

Judge Beth Labson Freeman said her May initial denial of Zazzle’s bid for an early win, which found designer Nicky Laatz’s copyrights, although invalidly registered as “font data,” could have been registered as “computer programs,” was incorrect. It’s “irrelevant” if the font could be registered under a different category—the “font data” copyrights asserted in the lawsuit were invalidated in the May decision, Freeman wrote in an opinion filed Aug. 4 ...