Prior art definition: Top Countries

United States of America 

1. An invention which was known or used by others in US, or patented or described in a printed publication in US or a foreign country, before the invention by the applicant;

2. An invention which was patented or described in a printed publication in US or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in US, more than one year before the filing date;

3. An invention abandoned by the applicant;

4. An invention which was patented, or was the subject of an inventor's certificate filed by applicant or his legal representatives or assignees in a foreign country more than 12 months prior to the filing date;

5. An invention which was described in a published US patent application by another or in a patent filed by another before the invention by the applicant (for the PCT international applications, only if they designate US and are published in English language);

6. During the course of interference, another inventor establishes that, before the invention date, he/she invented the invention and not abandoned, surpressed or concealed the invention; or another inventor made the invention in US before the invention date and he/she had not abandoned, surpressed or concealed the invention.

Japan

1. Anything which, before the filing date (priority date), was publicly known or worked, published, or made available to the public through electric telecommunication lines.
2. Contents of certain Japanese patent and utility model applications with an earlier filing date (priority date).

India

Publication in any document or used in India or elsewhere in the world before the filing date (priority date).

Are patent text and images Copyrighted?

There is a debate over this topic that text and images of patent are subject of copyright protection. I have researched over this and found out that the answer to this debate is no.

Copyright: Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly. 

Patent: A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. 

The text of patent is made by research and references the inventor has cited with little or no modification from the prior art, hence their text and images can not be copyrighted. There is disclosure part in patent body which is subjected to copyright.