Decide whether to grant Nerd Fonts an exception to the Reserved Font Name

[benelog]

Nerd Fonts asked whether D2Coding can grant an exception to its Reserved Font Name, so that a patched build that only adds glyphs may keep the name D2Coding Nerd Font.

Request: ryanoasis/nerd-fonts#1968 (reply in thread)
Reply so far: ryanoasis/nerd-fonts#1968 (reply in thread)

Background

• The RFN is not new in 1.3.3. with Reserved Font Name D2Coding comes from the original 2015 license text, which lived only in the project wiki until it was moved into LICENSE.md and OFL.txt this month.
• No release archive before 1.3.3 contained a license file, so the restriction was not visible to tooling. Nerd Fonts still lists D2Coding as OFL-1.1-no-RFN in their license-audit.md.
• The same RFN therefore already applies to the 1.3.2 based D2Coding Nerd Font they ship today.
• Nerd Fonts has pinned D2Coding to 1.3.2 for their 3.5.0 release. 1.3.3 is metadata only, so nothing is lost by that in the meantime.

What needs to happen

• Discuss with the person who handles open source licensing at NAVER whether to grant the exception, and decide the scope: Nerd Fonts only, or any patched build that adds glyphs without modifying existing ones.
• If granted, record the written permission in the repository. The SIL guidance is to keep OFL.txt untouched and put the permission in a separate file, so something like PERMISSIONS.md at the root, linked from README.md and included in the release archive by tools/release.py.
• Report the decision back on the Nerd Fonts discussion thread.
• Ask Nerd Fonts to correct the OFL-1.1-no-RFN entry in license-audit.md regardless of the outcome, or send them a pull request.

Open question

The font name table (name ID 7) declares D2Coding is a registered trademark of NAVER Corporation. That wording predates this repository and was carried over from the NHN era. Whether an actual trademark registration exists has not been confirmed, and it is worth checking while the licensing question is being discussed.