Public domain

Public domain

The public domain includes both creations that cannot be protected by intellectual property rights and those for which the term of protection has expired (a patent thus “falls” into the public domain 20 years after the filing of the application from which it derives).

It should be noted that the expression “public domain” is also used improperly in relation to intellectual property. It tends to be used to refer to non-appropriable ideas, in other words, common things. It would be better to talk about a common domain. The notion of “public domain” also leads to confusion with the public domain in the sense of administrative law.