Emoticons & Emojis Licenses

Hello Pierre-Henri Lavigne

You are correct in your understanding.

If it is only distributed as a free plug-in, and the distribution is marked with a statement that "the user is allowed to take responsibility for it". In terms of process, the free distribution of this content is allowed by the previous copyright article.

Details can be found in the following images:

Nevertheless, when it comes to the use of Emoji symbols, I would recommend that you contact the relevant Microsoft legal department. As they will have more expertise in this area than I do :-)

You can visit the link below, submit a ticket or send an email and a phone call and ask how the content in question can be used more regularly in the distribution of the software.

How to Report a Compliance Concern | Microsoft Legal

Sincerely,

Chandy

Hello Chandy,

And first a warm thank you for taking time to reply to me :-)

To rephrase the first part, I guess as you told any Microsoft asset would never be considered as "abandonware" (comparing to video games ;-) )

About the second part to be more concise about my project, I would like to distribute / use the emoticons from Messenger / Microsoft 8 or 10 inside online chat / forums, like Wordpress based plugins for example, nothing fantastic.

• Personal : yes, to communicate only

- Non-commercial use : yes I won't make money with the icons, will be distributed as separated / individual free addons

• No resell: Yes that's the point

From what I understand, even with the more permissive 365 or Fluent UI Kit - which is not my target - after trying reading between the lines - no offense - it should be ok if I make a community app for example to allow the user to add older Windows Messenger or Windows 8 emojis inside a Windows 11 app - which is not the case ^^. I would like to use the icons outside the Windows environment.

Let's use a concrete examples:

1. if I bundle the icons (binary / svg / gif or whatever the format), not for a Microsoft product, for example a Wordpress or Joomla addon, with a GPL or similar OSS license it's NG ?
2. Depending from the user's country, if the use is ok and the patent is restrictive, comparing to some linux softwares / codecs, if I don't share / associate it on a store but allow the user to take the responsibility regards to its residency and let him download and install it manually, is ok ?

Thank you very much in advance for your advises

Hello Pierre-Henri Lavigne

Thanks for raising your concerns in Microsoft Community.

You are correct that emoticons and emojis are not considered "product icons" and are typically treated differently in terms of licensing and use. However, it's important to note that the specific licensing terms for these assets can vary depending on the platform they are used on and the context in which they are being used. For more details of Microsoft Copyrights, you can see this article:

Copyrights | Microsoft Legal

In general, emoticons and emojis that were included with older versions of Windows Messenger or Windows 8/10 are likely protected by copyright law and should not be used without permission from the copyright holder*(However, this is subject to the local country's copyright law on copyright protection)* The fact that they are no longer actively supported or widely used does not necessarily mean that they are now free to use without permission.

As you noted, Microsoft provides some guidelines around the use of its copyrighted materials, including product icons and other creative content.

In terms of emojis and icons provided through Microsoft 365, the licensing terms are likely to be more permissive since they are intended for use within the Microsoft ecosystem.

As we learned in earlier community threads, these emoticons and icons are allowed to be recreated or added to your products and applications [for example, as "retro icons" for chat]. As long as the user uses them for personal, non-commercial use only, and does not sell the content separately for a second time, there is no need to worried about copyright infringement.

Feel free to post back if anything unclear.

Best regards,

Chandy |Microsoft Community Support Specialist