HT202332: Use emoji on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

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jskywalker12

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Q: Are individual emoji characters protected by copyright, or are they in the public domain for use on tangible goods?

Are individual emoji characters protected by copyright, or are they in the public domain for use on tangible goods?

Posted on Oct 8, 2014 10:53 AM

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Level 10 (188,821 points)

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A:

It would depend upon the individual emoji. I would expect most are copyrighted.

Posted on Oct 8, 2014 11:03 AM

Q: Are individual emoji characters protected by copyright, or are they in the public domain for use on tangible goods?

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by lllaass,Solvedanswer

lllaass Oct 8, 2014 11:03 AM in response to jskywalker12
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Oct 8, 2014 11:03 AM in response to jskywalker12

It would depend upon the individual emoji. I would expect most are copyrighted.
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by Tom Gewecke,

Tom Gewecke Oct 8, 2014 1:32 PM in response to jskywalker12
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Oct 8, 2014 1:32 PM in response to jskywalker12

Certainly the emoji shown in the international standard are in the public domain:

http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf

As for those you see displayed on your Mac in color, you would need to check the license of the Apple Color Emoji font.
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by lllaass,

lllaass Oct 8, 2014 1:37 PM in response to Tom Gewecke
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Oct 8, 2014 1:37 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Note that the article that Tom referred to included this statement
"The Unicode Standard 7.0, Copyright © 1991-2014 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved.".
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by Tom Gewecke,Helpful

Tom Gewecke Oct 8, 2014 2:18 PM in response to jskywalker12
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Oct 8, 2014 2:18 PM in response to jskywalker12

I was totally wrong, Illaass is right. While all the data (names, numbers, etc) connected to emoji are essentially public domain, the PDF charts are not. The rights to the glyphs used there to represent the emoji characters belong the organizations that contributed them, as stated at

http://www.unicode.org/charts/fonts.html
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by Tom Gewecke,Helpful

Tom Gewecke Oct 8, 2014 4:53 PM in response to jskywalker12
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Oct 8, 2014 4:53 PM in response to jskywalker12

PS The glyphs on this font seem free of use restrictions

https://github.com/MorbZ/OpenSansEmoji
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