Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

public domain

1. Government-owned land. 2. The realm of publications, inventions, and processes that are not protected by copyright or patent. ( Things in the public domain can be appropriated by anyone without liability for infringement. "[P]ublic domain is the status of an invention, creative work, commercial symbol, or any other creation that is not protected by any form of intellectual property. Public domain is the rule: intellectual property is the exception." 1 J. Thomas McCarthy, McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition $ 1.01[2], at 1-3 (3d ed. 1996).