USPTO Says Copies Of Academic Articles Submitted As Prior Art Are Covered By Fair Use | Techdirt

“With all the heat that publishers are starting to feel from the academic community, you might have thought that they'd avoid upsetting anyone else. But it seems that some publishers have decided to go after lawyers who make patent applications that include copies of academic articles as prior art... Surprisingly, perhaps, the USPTO has waded in to this squabble and offered its opinion in a statement (pdf): ‘Patent applicants or their attorneys sometimes make copies of copyrighted NPL [non-patent literature] and submit those copies to the USPTO, pursuant to the USPTO's disclosure requirements. The USPTO considers this copying to be protected by the doctrine of fair use. In the rest of its eight-page document, the USPTO goes on to explain the legal reasoning that led it to come to that conclusion...’”