All the common fonts do look pretty much the same, but it's surprising how many there actually are. Very subtle differences can also have pretty significant effects on readability, or on those "subconcious influence parameters" that the ad shops try so hard to manipulate. In most cases, without side-by-side comparison on enlarged samples you'd think they were all one or two faces.

Creating a new font/typeface isn't really too difficult, and nearly all companies "commission a new font" for their logos and sometimes for ad text. Often a "font" created and copyright protected may consist of only those characters used in the company name.

I do know that there's a "Boeing" typeface, and that the copyright statement says that "only the word 'Boeing' may be legally written using this typeface." A dozen or so "logos" are also individually copyrighted, and even company employees technically are prohibited from "creating a new one."

Unfortunately, I can't show examples unless you've also stolen the ©font(s), but your local bookstore probably has dozens of books of samples.

The shapes of the glyphs cannot be patented or copyright protected (in the US). Only the name of the font can be subject to copyright protections. If you "steal" someone's font and change the name, there's little they can do about it - if you can stand the possible threats from their attorneys.

CorelDraw for years had a "font converter" that would take any font you had, and "rewrite" the font files under a new name, and I haven't heard of a successful challenge to the practice. The "converted" fonts actually were somewhat inferior to the originals in many cases; but were good enough for many uses. (I don't know if that's still a CorelDraw "feature.")

John