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In general, the contents of United States patents are in the public domain.[1]

In specific cases, patent applicants and holders may claim copyright in portions of those documents. In those specific cases, applicants are required to identify the portions that are protected under copyright, and are additionally required to state the following within the body of the application and patent:[2] [3]

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.

The original patent should be checked for the presence of such language before an assumption is made that the contents are in the public domain.

Figure 2 from U.S. patent 4,672,649, "Three Dimensional Scanned Projection Radiography Using High Speed Computed Tomographic Scanning System", Brian K. Rutt, assigned to Imatron (General Electric).