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The world's biggest typeface lawsuit just settled

The world's biggest typeface lawsuit just settled

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Earlier this year, the world was shocked by the high-profile breakup of Hoefler & Frere-Jones, one of the world's most prestigious typeface foundries. The firm was responsible for some of the most widely used typefaces of recent times, most notably the Gotham and Surveyor families, and served clients including GQ, Esquire and The New York Times. While many had assumed the business was an equal partnership between Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, it emerged that Hoefler had negotiated sole ownership of the firm. Frere-Jones sued for half of the business, and the pair descended into one of the most closely watched lawsuits the design world has seen in years.

Now, it appears that fight is over. According to documents filed today with the New York County Supreme Court, the case of "Tobias Frere-Jones v. Jonathan Hoefler" has been settled by the court's Alternate Dispute Resolution program.

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The details of the settlement are confidential and it is still unclear how the dispute over ownership was resolved, but it's worth noting that the settlement comes just before the discovery period of the trial was set to begin, preventing any potentially embarrassing documents from being admitted into public evidence. The firm has been rebranded as Hoefler & Co., and is now under the sole direction of Jonathan Hoefler.