Camera-wiki.org:Images in patents

This is a work in progress.

The copyright status of images (mostly diagrams) in patents differs between countries, and is sometimes hard to be certain of. However, the purpose of a patent being to publish the technical detail of an invention, their use is at least easily covered by Fair Use. Some states have made the freedom of their use clearer.

• France: The Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI) gives what seems a comprehensive licence for reuse of all the information it holds, provided the source is acknowledged. However, item 2.4 of that licence requires the re-user to respect the rights of third parties, including patent applicants, who retain the copyright of patent drawings: The Re-user undertakes to respect the rights, in particular intellectual property rights, of third parties. In this respect, it is hereby expressly recalled that the Information contains elements that may be protected by the intellectual property rights of third parties (graphical representations of trademarks, patent drawings, etc.), and that the provision of such elements by the INPI does not automatically entitle the Re-user to re-use them for purposes other than the dissemination of information contained in registered industrial property rights and centralised statutory disclosure instruments for which they have been collected. This implies, however, that re-use for the purpose of disseminating information is permitted.
• Germany: Germany specifically excludes patents from copyright protection: Pursuant to externer Link Section 5(2) of the Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetz), patent documents (first publications of applications, patent specifications and utility model specifications) are excluded from copyright protection from the time of their official publication. Please note that you are required to cite the source correctly when you publish a paper.
• Japan
• Switzerland: the Swiss Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights (CopA) of 1992 excludes patents from protection: Art. 5 Works excluded from protection. 1 Copyright does not protect: a. acts, ordinances, international treaties and other official enactments; b. means of payment; c. decisions, minutes and reports issued by authorities and public administrations; d. patent specifications and published patent applications.
• USA: The US Patent & Trademark Office states Subject to limited exceptions (...), the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions.
• UK: In the UK, prior to 1 August 1989, copyright in Patents was reserved for the Crown; but the UK Intellectual Property Office stated that, except in cases of gross abuse (attempts to sell the information) it did not propose to enforce that copyright. In British Patents published since 1 August 1989 (when the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) came into force), the copyright remains with the applicant, but the IPO states that the information may be freely used for the purpose of 'disseminating information'.