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The copyright status of the content of patent applications and patents may vary from one legislation to another. Whether scientific literature can be freely copied for the purpose of patent prosecution is also a matter for discussion.
Copyright status of the content of patent applications and patents
United States
In the United States, a patent applicant may obtain copyright protection or mask work protection for the content of their patent application if they include the following authorization notice in their application:[1]
- 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.
Otherwise, however, "the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions."[2]
Copyright law and the use of non-patent literature in patent prosecution
United States
A related, but different, issue is whether scientific literature, sometimes referred to as "non-patent literature" (NPL), can be freely copied for submission to the USPTO and more generally in the context of patent prosecution.[3]
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