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[Matt Ruetz]

I am compiling a book of interesting patents and plan on publishing some existing patents as part of this. Some of the patents are recent and other are a hundred years old or more. Is there any legal issues to publishing patent information?  I would assume this is all public record and therefore can be published, correct?

[M. Arthur Auslander]

Dear Mr. Ruetz,

I am not aware of any problems unless you go beyond the public record. A copyright notice should be your red flag.

[eric stasik]

Mr. Reutz,

According to the USPTO:

"Patents are published into the public domain as part of the terms of granting the patent to the inventor. As such, they are not subject to copyright restrictions."

http://www.uspto.gov/main/ccpubguide.htm

Regards,

[Matt Ruetz]

Thanks for the replies, this has been extremely helpful....

[JimIvey]

There's only one copyright limitation of published patents that I'm aware of.  It pertains to patents which include source code appendices.  You are authorized to publish the source code as part of publishing the patent document itself, but you are not authorized to make any other use of the source code (i.e., compile, link, run...).  These patents will have a form (boilerplate) paragraph in the beginning of the specification to this effect.

Other than that, have fun!

You should also be aware that your book (assuming it will be copyrighted itself) won't prevent anyone else from reproducing those patents -- even if they lift the patent text directly from your book.  In short, your work will be protectable as to the organization and such (whatever creative elements you yourself added), but not the patents themselves.  I'm sure there's all kinds of interesting stuff about this in the copyright forum and links of this site.

Regards.

[Isaac]

I disagree somewhat with the stated position on the PTO's
web page.

I agree that the patent holder is unable to prevent someone
from the material in a patent disclosure for any purpose
consistent with the purpose of the patent system.  But that's
not exactly the same thing as being in the public domain.  I
think that book that the original poster wants to right fits
well within that purpose and I would argue that he is free to
write the book he describes without getting permission.

The MPEP indicates that a patent holder can reserve the copyright on material in a patent disclosure subject only to "facsimile reproduction by anyone ... of the document as it appears in the patent file or records" with all other rights being reserved.  Again that is far short of public domain.  (Continued next message)

[Isaac]

A few more points.  The PTO rule, 37 CER 1.71(d)
allowing a copyright notice at least arguably neglects the
point that under current law a copyright notice is not required
to reserve copyright, and also at least arguably it exceeds
the PTO's power to require one when Congress has explicitly
made such notices optional and allows copyright potection
without a notice.

Nothing in the law that I have seen requires a patent holder
to place material in the public domain in exchange for a
patent.  IMO placing material in the public domain requires a
writing doing so.  Also, any copyright in the material would belong to the attorney rather than the applicant in many cases.