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[losr2008]

I am working on a new patent application. There are of course existing patents that deal with the same subject matter. Much of my description would be largely the same as the descriptions in several existing patents. Is there any problem with my simply copying, pasting, and perhaps only slightly editing, text from existing patents for use in my new patent application? Is this prohibited? Bad form? Plagiarism?

[BotchedExperiment]

Searches of this forum might reveal some answers, as this question has been touched on before.

Some of the ideas voiced on this forum are that patents are probably copyright protected, yet it seems to be an accepted practice for practitioners to copy language from patents that were written by other practitioners.

It seems to me that if the patent was written within your firm, there is no chance of anyone pursuing copyright infringement against you.

As for the PTO, they don't seem to care at all, and in the case of interferences, they seem to unofficially approve of exact copying of some portions of patents.

So there you go.  The answer is ‘nothing on this forum is legal advice (especially what I write) and there’s no way I’m going to tell you that it is ok to copy and paste stuff that you didn’t write.’

[pentazole]

As far as I know, "plagiarism" within the field of drafting legal documents is encouraged in the sense that if someone produced a legal document proven to hold its weight against scrutiny, it would be wasteful not to use it as a starting point.

[wiener]

Some of the ideas voiced on this forum are that patents are probably copyright protected, yet it seems to be an accepted practice for practitioners to copy language from patents that were written by other practitioners.

Here is the official position from the USPTO. See http://www.uspto.gov/main/ccpubguide.htm (portions reproduced below with emphasis added)

"Patents are published as part of the terms of granting the patent to the inventor. Subject to limited exceptions reflected in 37 CFR 1.71(d) & (e) and 1.84(s), the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions. The inventors' right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States for a limited time is not compromised by the publication of the description of the invention. In other words, the fact that a patent's description may have been published without copyright restrictions does not give you permission to manufacture or use the invention without permission from the inventor during the active life of the patent.

See MPEP§600 - 608.01(v) (scroll down the page) regarding the right to include a copyright or mask work notice in patents.

CAUTION: There are instances where trademarks may be embedded in patents as part of the drawing, particularly for design patents.There are also instances where a portion of the text or drawings of a patent may be under copyright. You should consult an attorney regarding these potential trademark and copyright issues. The USPTO will not assist in determining if a potential trademark issue or copyright issue exists for a particular patent."