publication

Any document that is available to the public anywhere in the world. MPEP 2128, MPEP 2128.01, MPEP 2128.02.

Any disclosure in a form readily accessible or distributed to the public.

most generally construed is the act or process of making a record or records available to public inspection (i.e. deliberately making them "public" instead of reserving them in inaccessible storage); more narrowly construed it is the act or process of broad distribution in multiple copies of a specific record or body of records to the public in general, and it is also any discrete package of information that is so distributed, no matter what the medium of packaging and distribution may be (print, film, audio-recording, electronic mail, etc.).