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public domain

noun

Law.

the status of a literary work or an invention whose copyright or patent has expired or that never had such protection.
land owned by the government.

public domain

noun

lands owned by a state or by the federal government
the status of a published work or invention upon which the copyright or patent has expired or which has not been patented or subject to copyright. It may thus be freely used by the public
able to be discussed and examined freely by the general public

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Other Word Forms

public-domain adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of public domain¹

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Lyons has defended his comments saying the information was in the public domain, and had been confirmed by the local council.

From

Initially, before AI exploded into our lives, AI developers scraped enormous quantities of content from the internet, arguing that it was in the public domain already and therefore freely available.

From

Should her insecurities and parental doubts be in the public domain?

From

It did not produce evidence for any affiliation to Hamas, despite the names of those killed being in the public domain.

From

Postecoglou revealed on Friday that there was a mole inside his club filtering out classified information into the public domain.

From

public defender public enemy

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