{"id":8,"date":"2013-08-04T14:52:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T18:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=8"},"modified":"2013-08-05T09:38:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T13:38:44","slug":"copyright-in-patent-text-and-drawings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=8","title":{"rendered":"Copyright in Patent Text and Drawings"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been alot of comment recently about the fact that Fig. 5 from Google’s U.S. Patent Application 2013\/0181936:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fig. 5, US Patent Application No. 2013\/0181936<\/p><\/div>\n

looks alot like\u00a0Fig. 12 from Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,089,233:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fig. 12, US Patent No. 8,098,233<\/p><\/div>\n

If one of these\u00a0figures was copied from\u00a0other,\u00a0would this be copyright infringement?<\/p>\n

37 CFR 1.71(d) alows a copyright or mask work notice to be placed in a design or utlity patent adjacent the material\u00a0for which copyright or mark work protection is claimed.\u00a0 Inclusion\u00a0of copryight notice is only permitted if\u00a0the authoriziation of 37 CFR 1.171(e)\u00a0is also included:<\/p>\n

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to (copyright or mask work) protection. The (copyright or mask work) owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all (copyright or mask work) rights whatsoever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

37 CFR 1.84(c) permits copyright notice on patent drawings under the condidtions.<\/p>\n

M.P.E.P. 608.01(v)(II) staes that:<\/p>\n

The inclusion of a copyright or mask work notice in a design or utility patent application, and thereby any patent issuing therefrom, under the conditions set forth above will serve to protect the rights of the author\/inventor, as well as the public, and will serve to promote the mission and goals of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Therefore, the inclusion of a copyright or mask work notice which complies with these conditions will be permitted. However, any departure from these conditions may result in a refusal to permit the desired inclusion. If the authorization required under condition (C) above does not include the specific language \u201c(t)he (copyright or mask work) owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records,…\u201d the notice will be objected to as improper by the examiner of the application.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, does the absence of copyright notice and authorization of 37 CFR 1.71(d),(e) dedicate the copyrighted material to the public?\u00a0 Copyright notice is not usually a prerequisite to copyright protection.\u00a0 The Berne Convention prohibits the imposition of\u00a0formalities such as notice or registration as a prequisite to copyright protection.\u00a0 It would not seem that\u00a0the U.S.P.T.O. could impose by implication from its regulations,\u00a0a requirement of copyright notice as a prerequisite to copyright protection.<\/p>\n

Whether or not copyright notice is a prerequisite to protection, it seems like a good idea, and U.S. Patent No. D687,048, which issued on July 30, 2013, illustrated how it can be done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

US Patent No. D687048<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been alot of comment recently about the fact that Fig. 5 from Google’s U.S. Patent Application 2013\/0181936: looks alot like\u00a0Fig. 12 from Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,089,233: If one of these\u00a0figures was copied from\u00a0other,\u00a0would this be copyright infringement? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}