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Public Domain, Copyright, Trademark & Patent Information

Public Domain

Materials created by the federal government are generally part of the public domain and may be used, reproduced and distributed without permission. Therefore, content on this Web site which is in the public domain may be used without the prior permission of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). However, such materials may not be used in a manner that implies any affiliation or endorsement by the DOL of your company, Web site or publication. You may properly credit public domain materials obtained from a DOL Web site to the U.S. Department of Labor and/or http://www.dol.gov.


Copyright

WARNING: Not all materials on this Web site were created by the federal government. Some content — including both images and text — may be the copyrighted property of others and used by the DOL under a license. Such content generally is accompanied by a copyright notice. It is your responsibility to obtain any necessary permission from the owner/s of such material prior to making use of it. You may contact the DOL for details on specific content, but we cannot guarantee the copyright status of such items. Please consult the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress — http://www.copyright.gov — to search for copyrighted materials.


Trademarks/Use of DOL Seals

DOL seals and/or logos on this Web site are the protected property of the federal government and may not be used without our prior permission. In addition, some terms, phrases, slogans and/or designs appearing on our Web site may be the trademarked property of others, used by the DOL under a license. Prior to using such a trademark, it is your responsibility to acquire any necessary permission from the owner/s of the trademark. You may contact DOL for details about particular trademarks, but we cannot assist you in contacting trademark owners or arranging and managing license agreements for the use of such trademarks. Trademark information may be acquired from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at http://www.uspto.gov.


Patents

A patent provides its owner the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling his/her invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States for a limited time. As part of the terms of granting the patent to the inventor, patents are published into the public domain. However, the fact that a patent’s description is in the public domain (and could appear on this Web site) does not give others permission to manufacture or use the invention during the life of the patent without permission from the inventor. Information on patents may be acquired from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at http://www.uspto.gov.