Commons:Licensing/U.S. road shields

"Any traffic control device design or application provision contained in this Manual shall be considered to be in the public domain. Traffic control devices contained in this Manual shall not be protected by a patent, trademark, or copyright, except for the Interstate Shield and any other items owned by FHWA."

This subpage of Commons:Licensing attempts to further clarify the specific licensing of road signs that are based from the Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. As stated in the introduction, all images, except for the Interstate shield and any other items owned by the FHWA, are hereby released into the public domain, and should be tagged {{PD-USGov-MUTCD}} when applicable. The Interstate shields should be tagged {{PD-ineligible}}, as they were made without any creativity, and that they can be freely used even though they are trademarked.

State Highway shields

In spite of some argument over State Highway shield licensing, the following text is based on community consensus:

• The FHWA creates the MUTCD, which includes Figure 2D-3 on page 2D-5 of Chapter 2D. This figure includes "State Route Sign M1-5", with an Alabama marker for the sake of choosing one to show. Below it states that "State Route signs shall be designed by the individual State highway agencies."
• By federal law, specifically Title 23, Chapter I, Part 655, states shall adopt their own MUTCDs "in substantial conformance with the national MUTCD", which shall be used in the design of traffic control devices - including signs - on any public road.
• The introduction to the MUTCD states that "Any traffic control device design or application provision contained in this Manual shall be considered to be in the public domain. Traffic control devices contained in this Manual shall not be protected by a patent, trademark, or copyright, except for the Interstate Shield and any other items owned by FHWA." The state highway shields are designed by the state highway agencies, not the FHWA.
• The states which adopt the federal MUTCD wholesale with their own shield drawings, and those which have their own MUTCD, are shown on the MUTCD site. [Someone should verify that none of them decided to repeal the section about the public domain. Would that still be "substantial conformance"? Only a lawyer could possibly tell, so we should check individually.]
• Every state is thus bound, by federal law, to release their state highway shields into the public domain.