English: The full photo was first published in 1929 or 1930 and rediscovered/republished in 2002 after it had entered the public domain.

• Original source: The photo was originally published in at least two different forms: a Paramount publicity photo (most likely distributed to newspapers) and a 1930 Paramount promotional calendar distributed by the F. W. Boerner Company. (Boerner was responsible for Paramount's graphics and marketing from 1930–1934, and his company distributed the remainder of Paramount's unsold records after the label went out of business in 1932.) The tighter crop showing just Patton's face was published in a 1929 Paramount supplement.
• Instant source: High-res scan via NewSounds.org. Retouched by uploader; see unretouched original in upload history below.

English: Photo published by Paramount Records and the F. W. Boerner Company. Photographer uncredited and unknown.

English: No permission is required because the photo entered the public domain in the late 1950s at the latest. It is unknown whether the publicity photo or calendar were originally printed with valid copyright notices, which would have been required upon publication in the US prior to 1978 to ensure copyright protection. Even assuming the original works carried copyright notices, any copyright that may have existed was not renewed. Both of these promotional materials were published in the US prior to 1964 and were not renewed with the US Copyright Office before the expiration of their initial 28-year copyright term. Because of the lack of renewal, the photograph entered the public domain on January 1, 1959, at the latest, assuming publication in 1930. In 2003, the photo was republished in 78 Quarterly. As reproduced in that magazine, the photo bears the following notice: "All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2003 Blues Images.com™. This photograph not to be reproduced or copied without express written permission." However, by that time the original copyright on the photo had lapsed, if it had ever existed in the first place, and a faithful reproduction of a public domain work cannot be copyrighted.