I've been trying to find a way to check the status of IPs, specifically if an IP is in the public domain or not.

But despite my best effort, I have been unable to find a way to check for that kind of information.

So my question is pretty simple : is there a way to check for the status of a specific IP ?


Patents: yes.

Registered designs: yes.

Copyright: no.

Registered Trademarks: yes.

Common law Trademarks: no.

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  • slight correction on copyright: Yes, if Author is known, then it's copyrighted till 75 Years after their death. – Trish Aug 14 '19 at 10:22
  • @Trish, copyright jurisdiction is jurisdiction dependent. – Dale M Aug 14 '19 at 10:25
  • Ok but the Berne convention says at least 50 years after the author's death, while many western countries (EU, America) use the 75 years standard. – Trish Aug 14 '19 at 10:27
  • @Trish Australia is 70 as is the UK. France has different terms if the author died on active service. Mexico is 100. You can’t generalise. – Dale M Aug 14 '19 at 11:29
  • 2
    @Trish, copyright is complicated. See, for example, this chart, which covers only the situation in the US. Depending on various factors, you may need to know when it was created, when it was first published, where it was first published, if it's a work of individual, anonymous, federal government, or corporate authorship, if it was published with a copyright notice, if the copyright was registered, what language it was written in, if the copyright was owned by the Alien Property Custodian, and if it's a sound recording or work of architecture. – Mark Aug 15 '19 at 1:50

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