You call it a "rip off version". By that I would interpret it to mean they copied the design and are calling it by another name. Is that the case?

Or is it a case where they are using an unlicensed copy of your font?

What you do, or can do, is dependent upon the situation. More information is needed.

To begin with, here is what the typeface Chiavari looks like:

http://helenezund.ch/chiavari.html

Anagrama is in Mexico. It is a design and branding company, and Nación, rather than being the name of a typeface, is the name of a housing project for which they're providing a brand identity.

So they might be customers rather than unfair competitors to the designer of Chiavari, and only garbled web links to this use of the typeface made it seem like that company was in the typeface design business... sort of.

Thanks for your post,

I never commercialized the font and never gave the file away, except to a few type designer friends. I think they created a custom typeface for their client, veeeery much inspired by my design. Some letters like uppercase U and V are different but others are clearly identical
In red, their work, in green, mine.

Thanks quadibloc for the link http://helenezund.ch/chiavari.html, it's my personal website.

It sounds very much like one of your friends is not quite ethical. I think your best course of action would be to contact Anagrama and provide them with complete documentation that it is your original work being sold to them. If they are like most reputable firms they will quickly back off from using it if that is what you want. They may also provide you with more information as to how they came to use it which might be of help to you.

Why did you never commercialize it?

It sounds very much like one of your friends is not quite ethical.

Since the font used by Anagrama closely resembles, but is not identical to, Chiavari, and Chiavari won an award, so its general appearance had received publicity, that conclusion does not seem to be warranted, because there is no reason to assume they got hold of an actual Chiavari font, and no need for them to access privileged information to know what Chiavari looks like.

Yes, it's too close. And the extent to which it's being used means it most probably is an actual font (although not necessarily one their client has been given a copy of). First thing to do is write a firm but gracious letter asking for an explanation, and outlining your expectations. In terms of expectations, I would set a price for Chiavari and put forth that either purchasing it or switching fonts would be acceptable (noting however that your lack of publication does count against you here).

BTW:
1: How come you won in 2012 while the font was from 2009?
2: They could have also seen it here: http://typophile.com/node/90125

hhp