Talk:Hackney (automobile)

Patent detail worth commenting on?

I can't say I've read a lot of automobile patents, so I'm not sure if it is worth noting in this article that the unique traits that warranted the granting of a patent appear to relate only to "ornamental design" and not to inner mechanical parts. Thoughts?LRFtheLion (talk) 06:04, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Adding a reference to the patent is common for automobile articles. If nothing else, it provides dates, the company name and often a designer's name. Never seen a patent image on a article though. I suppose it is useful if we can't find any other public domain images. Not sure if it is allowed since the image was prepared by someone in the Hackney company rather than a US government employee - ie not public domain and not necessarily by the US government. Stepho talk 06:51, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That's what I was trying to figure out from the wording of what is and isn't protected in the patent document itself. If I understand correctly (but I'm by no means an attorney), everything about the patent document itself is public domain, but the actual invention protected by the patent cannot be used by anyone other than the patent holder. So I think this means the actual text and images in the patent document itself can be used as public domain material. But I'm definitely not a legal expert. Whatever the case, I think an actual photo would be way better, but I couldn't find one I was sure was public domain. Maybe we could find someone who actually owns one who would be willing to upload a photo to Wikimedia Commons? LRFtheLion (talk) 18:55, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]