I've seen a great picture in a 1970's patent document that I'd like to display on part of a company website.
Can I go about that as the image is in the public domain - is it? - or do I have to sacrifice 10 groats to the gods of copyright narnia?
Searching USPO for an answer to this, leads to answers regarding copyright related to the inventions themselves and not the images which they are hosting online. Unless I missed something. Anyone know?
-- Adrian C
Just do it. A patent is a public disclosure.
Who's gonna sue you?
John
See, you've been brainwashed to assume Government is the absolute arbiter of such things.
Try contacting the copyright holder and asking if it's OK with _them_ for you to use the image.
Mark L. Fergerson
Since it's a public disclosure, does the patent holder have a right to refuse, really?
o r
ch
There are documents submitted to the government that can be viewed only on government websites, that is, no secondary use. A good example would be the application data sent to the FCC for equipment approval since they often contain schematics.
:The Congress shall have Power [. . .] :To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, :by securing for ***limited*** Times to Authors and Inventors :the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries : -- United States Constitution - Article I
You've overlooked the ***limited*** part.
...and unlike the complete abortion that copyright law has become,
...well, almost.
nuny@ bid.nes wrote:
You're on the right track, but Larkin was much closer. The whole purpose of "Intellectual Property" law is **disclosure** with the intent that ideas will quickly move into the Public Domain and add to the culture.
You're still mired in the "permission society" aberration,
If you ask permission every time you do anything, you won't get much done.
The worst-case scenario is that some lawyer might send you a cease-and-desist letter. And the chances of that happening are nil.
John
Not with all this coverage. Now there's a dozen lawyers waiting to pounce ;-)
In actual fact the copyright is owned my the applicant OR his assignee.
If you're publishing somewhere that gets a lot of hits, _someone_ might take offense.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
It\'s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
Thanks all, I'm going to redraw the image. What it describes is fairly mundane anyway, and I've got to produce other diagrams to support it. So might as well get creative over the whole lot.
Like this ...
-- Adrian C
If it goes to court, it'll make a for a good page 10 news story..
'Man Sues for 10 million in Damages for 1970 USPO Picture Used Without Permission.'
The following news story might be:
'14 Year Old Girl Jailed for Downloading mp3 Songs.'
D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com BC, Canada Posted to usenet sci.electronics.design
Use a different babe ;-)
...Jim Thompson
-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at
I like your ideas ...
I don't think that they have contained schematics for quite some time now. The whole thing went to Document of Conformity decades ago.
-- Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens. --Schiller (from "Die Jungfrau von Orleans")
Except that there are plenty of lawyers who seem to have made it their profession to comb the net for illegal pictures.
robert
Yes, scum bags of humanity.
Patent documents are public domain; that is the reason for the disclosure in the first place. There are many sources for (free) patent images online, the USPTO is one of them (requires AlternaTiff, a free program). Download the page(s) you want - they may be in TIF or other (standard) formats. Use ParaBen Screen Capture program (also free but register it) to clip out what you want and save that result as a GIF (most compact format for B&W i know of) and use as you see fit...
Incorrect answer..a patent is -->public domain
I repeat - there IS NO copyright; the issuing of a patent is to put that information into the PUBLIC DOMAIN. No decent lawyer (and almost no indecent lawyer) will bother with a letter; the indecent ones that are ignorant of the law might.. ..It actually happened to me and the letter was from the alleged owner (that had no patent and at that time it was not possible to get a patent on the item in question at that time) who parrotted his lawyer; the wording made it abundantly clear that they did not know the law. I merely told them of the facts of the law and that was that. However, sometimes it is wise to offer mitigation of some sort (*NEVER* offer money as that is like admitting of guilt) which might be !voluntary! cease and desist.
I asked the same question (to a group more knowledgable in these matters) back in '02.
Unless you're doing something that will deliberately cause harm to someone else, John L. is probably on target here.
I'm uneasy with that.
The patent indeed is a public notice.
Yet I don't know if it's legal (without permission) to use illustrations from a patent for _commercial_benefit_ ??
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine Sometimes I even put it in the food
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