immigration-1
16 September 2013Copyright

Designer threatens UK government over immigration billboards

A French designer has threatened to sue the British government for copyright infringement over the use of his typeface on political billboards.

The mobile billboards, aimed at illegal immigrants, were driven around in London this summer displaying the message “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest”.

Fabien Delage says his ‘plane crash’ font, which the “Go home or face arrest” message was written in, was used without his permission.

The government says it is trying to settle the dispute with Delage, but he has told media that if the outcome of these talks is “negative” he may take legal action.

Delage’s typeface can be downloaded from his website for free, but only for personal use. The artist charges a licence for any commercial use.

He only became aware of the apparent use of his typeface after a British designer contacted him.

Mark Prinsley, partner at Mayer Brown LLP, said it seems like an “extraordinary situation for everybody to get themselves into”.

Most likely, said Prinsley, the government commissioned an advertising agency to design the billboards, so it might not necessarily have been aware of the use of Delage’s typeface.

“It is probably an innocent mistake by the government or the agency, and it may be that the government has a claim to make against the agency (under contract law),” he said.

If the government agrees to pay Delage to settle the case, the starting point for calculating the fee would be the amount he would have charged for the font’s use, Prinsley said. Delage charges groups such as artists and associations 50€ ($66.70) to use one font, but the cost for companies is 200€ ($267). It is unclear which category the government or agency might fall into.

“There are lots of ways of calculating licence fees,” Prinsley said.

He added: “I think it probably is in the government’s interests to avoid a lawsuit. To the extent that Delage does own the copyrighted work, it must be embarrassing to be caught up in an allegation that it hasn’t respected IP rights – even if it’s true that the government went through a design agency.”

Delage told DesignWeek that “my partners and customers now suspect I might have been involved in this campaign which, let me tell you, has been quite unpopular abroad”.

The controversial campaign, which saw vans driving around six London boroughs for a week in August, encouraged illegal immigrants to hand themselves into the police or potentially face arrest.

Following the campaign, the Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation after receiving 60 complaints that the ads had racist connotations.

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