Re: Are patent drawings public domain?

I see no reason for patent drawings to be in the public domain. The text (i.e., the claims) are because they're the words of legal significance the grant the patent monopoly. The drawings are merely part of the disclosure. The copyright interest in the drawings begins with their author(s), who might be the person filing the patent (because, for example, they are works made for hire, or the inventor or the inventor's assignee is also the author of the drawings), or might be someone else.

Part of the Code of Federal Regulations addresses

this: 
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxr_1_71.htm#cfr37s1.71; 
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxr_1_84.htm#cfr37s1.84

"The authorization shall read as follows:

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."

So the book cover design would seem beyond the scope of the authorization.

The short answer to your question (" are patent drawings filed with PTO and publicly available public domain, or does the person who filed the patent have a copyright interest in them?" is: No, the copyright owner does.

At 02:55 PM 4/20/2006, richards[_at_]lsu.edu wrote:
>Got an interesting question today - are patent drawings filed with PTO
>and publicly available public domain, or does the person who filed the
>patent have a copyright interest in them? Say I wanted to use on as a
>book cover design?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Ed
>
>Edward P. Richards
>Director, Program in Law, Science, and Public Health
>Harvey A. Peltier Professor of Law
>Paul M. Hebert Law Center
>Louisiana State University
>Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1000
>richards[_at_]lsu.edu
>http://biotech.law.lsu.edu
>Phone: 225/578-7595
>Fax: 225/578-5935
>
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S. Martin Keleti
Cohen and Cohen
740 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038-3339
323.938.5000
323.936.6354 fax Received on Sat Apr 22 2006 - 04:15:01 GMT