After ripping off Helvetica and Palatino, the Linotype corporation made a concerted effort when it was pointed out that the upcoming (well EVENTUALLY) XP system is to ship with something called “Segoe” that looks suspiciously like a common weight of Frutiger. comparison and history of this issue
Well, the EU (trademarks and designs) judge that:
“The typefaces of both designs have the same stroke thickness. The ratio from cap-height to descender height is equal. The proportion of character height to character pitch is identical. The type face in the specimen text does not show any differences. The minuscule “a”, “c”, “e” “g” and “t” have the same proportion … blah blah… crossbeam at the “e” … blah… “c” shows the same shape … blah.. the same sweep… totally identical in both designs. blah do not show any difference.”
JUSTICE. If only we could enact this retrospectively we could wipe out Arial at last.