The depicted text is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain because it is not a “literary work” or other protected type in sense of the local copyright law. Facts, data, and unoriginal information which is common property without sufficiently creative authorship in a general typeface or basic handwriting, and simple geometric shapes are not protected by copyright.
This tag does not generally apply to all images of texts. Particular countries can have different legal definition of the “literary work” as the subject of copyright and different courts' interpretation practices. Some countries protect almost every written work, while other countries protect distinctively artistic or scientific texts and databases only. Extent of creativeness, function and length of the text can be relevant. The copyright protection can be limited to the literary form – the included information itself can be excluded from protection.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This signature is believed to be ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain because it falls below the required level of originality for copyright protection both in the United States and in the source country (if different). In this case, the source country (e.g. the country of nationality of the signatory) is believed to be People's Republic of China.
Note that this tag cannot be used on all signatures, as not all signatures are copyright-free.