>Copyright is applied at the point of creation of a work, so unless they're in jurisdictions with no copyright law then they all acquire copyright on their font files.
Yes, but in the United States, copyright registration is a prerequisite for copyright litigation.
According to 17 U. S. C. §411(a), “no civil action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until . . . registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title.”
The Supreme Court addressed this head-on in Fourth Estate v. Wall Street.
Assuming your summation to be true, then that is really interesting as it breaks USA's obligations under the Berne Convention (which they didn't join until about 100 years after most of the West) which was the reason registration was ended as a requirement (but was still useful due to, AIUI, pecuniary damages being awarded for registered works whilst only actual damages are/were? awarded for unregistered).
I think you have erred, the question before the court concerned when registration bites. My understanding is 17 USC 106 still applies, but civil actions before the court require a registration to have been initiated; I thought that was just a filter on court actions?
Yes, but in the United States, copyright registration is a prerequisite for copyright litigation.
According to 17 U. S. C. §411(a), “no civil action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until . . . registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title.”
The Supreme Court addressed this head-on in Fourth Estate v. Wall Street.
See: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2018/17-571