U.S. Copyright Rights Transfer Registration Record

Whether or not a work is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, copyright owners often enter into agreements that affect their ownership. For example, an owner may transfer copyright ownership to another person, authorize another person to use the work, or even grant another person control over the use of the work. Documents related to such agreements, as well as other copyright-related documents, may be recorded with the Copyright Office under Section 205 of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C.).

Recording a transfer of copyright ownership or other copyright-related documents is voluntary. However, to encourage recording, the law provides certain legal advantages, including establishing priority between conflicting assignments and providing "constructive notice" to the public when certain requirements are met (see "Benefits of Recording" on page 2 for details). Any transfer of copyright ownership or other copyright-related documents may be recorded as long as the person filing the document complies with the Copyright Act and the procedures established by the Copyright Office.

What is copyright transfer registration?

• Federal law requires that copyright-related documents be filed with the Copyright Office. The Copyright Office maintains true and accurate copies of the records and makes them available for public inspection.
• Filing involves: (1) receiving copyright-related documents submitted by filers for record; (2) reviewing the documents to ensure that they meet the record requirements; (3) compiling the information in the documents into the Copyright Office's public record directory; (4) making copies of the documents available for public inspection; and (5) returning the documents marked as recorded to the filer. The public record directory (available online for documents recorded after 1977) includes a description of each recorded document, including information such as the name of the party, the title of the work, the registration number (if any), and a caption.
• The Copyright Office does not enforce agreements reflected in recorded documents. Although the Copyright Office has minimum requirements for recorded documents, such as that the document must be complete on its own terms, the Copyright Office does not determine whether a document meets the legal requirements to make it valid or enforceable.

The benefits of registration

• While it is not mandatory to record the transfer of copyright ownership or other copyright-related documents, filing a record has several advantages:
  • Under certain conditions, filing establishes legal priority between a conflicting assignment or transfer and a non-exclusive license.
  • Filing creates a public record of the contents of the document.
  • Some courts have held that a security interest in a registered work must be recorded with the Copyright Office in order to perfect the creditor's interest.
  • Filing a document can provide the advantage of "constructive notice," a legal concept that means the public is deemed to have knowledge of the facts stated in the document and cannot deny it. Section 205 of the Copyright Act provides that a document of record provides constructive notice to the owner only if both of the following conditions are met:
    • the document or its attachment clearly identifies the work to which it relates so that, after indexing by the Registrar of Copyrights, the document can be retrieved by a reasonable search of the work's title or registration number;
    • This work has completed the copyright registration process with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Contents of copyright transfer

• "Transfer of Copyright Ownership" means an assignment, pledge, grant of an exclusive license, transfer by will or intestacy, or any other form of assignment, transfer or pledge of any or all exclusive rights in the copyright, whether or not limited in time or place, but does not include a non-exclusive license.
• No transfer of copyright ownership, except by operation of law, shall be effective unless there is an instrument of transfer in writing (such as a contract, bond, or deed) or a memorandum of assignment signed by the owner of the rights or his duly authorized agent.
• The Copyright Office will record the transfer of copyright ownership after both parties have executed it. No special content is required in the document other than the requirements specified in the Copyright Act. However, the party who wishes to record the transfer of copyright ownership should file with the Copyright Office the legal instrument that transfers the copyright from one party to the other; merely describing the transfer is not sufficient to satisfy the requirement.
• A notarization or certification is not required to record a transfer of copyright ownership. However, Section 204(b) of the Copyright Act provides that a certification is prima facie evidence of a transfer of copyright ownership if either of the following conditions is met:
  • In the case of a transfer executed in the United States, the certificate is issued by a person authorized to administer oaths in the United States;
  • In the case of a transfer executed by a foreign country, the certificate is issued by a United States diplomatic or consular officer, or by a person authorized to administer oaths and whose authority is certified by such officer.

Other documents related to copyright

• A document is considered "copyright-related" if it has a direct or indirect relationship to the existence, scope, duration or identity of copyright, or to the ownership, division, assignment, licence, transfer or exercise of rights under copyright. This relationship can be past, present, future or potential. Examples include exclusive and non-exclusive licences, contracts, letters of authorization, certificates of change of company name and assignment orders. Examples of documents not copyright-related include bills of lading referring to the shipment of a film and assignments of patent or trademark rights.
• If a document does not appear to have any direct or indirect relationship to the copyright claim, the Copyright Office may contact the filer and may refuse to record the document.

Filing document requirements

• Any document transferring copyright ownership or otherwise relating to copyright may be recorded with the Copyright Office if it meets the following requirements. The document must:
  • Bear original signature (or if submitting a photocopy, with appropriate certification)
    • The document must bear the actual signature of the person or persons executing the document. If a photocopy of an original signed document is submitted, it must be accompanied by a sworn or official certification, depending on whether the document has been authenticated or filed in a government office. The certification must state that the attachment is a true copy of the original signed document.
    • A sworn certification is used for original documents that are not authenticated or filed in a government office. The sworn certification must state that the attachment is a true copy of the original signed document and must be signed by a party to the document or their authorized representative. A sworn certification may be issued by a notary public or other person authorized to administer an oath. In lieu of a notary public certification, the following statement is acceptable: "I declare under penalty of perjury that the attached document is a true and correct copy of the original document." Part 9 of Form DCS (discussed below) contains a sworn certification statement that can be used to satisfy this requirement. Note: A notary public's signature certifying that a photocopy is a true copy is not acceptable. The signatory must be a party to the document or their authorized representative.
    • Official certification is used for documents that have been authenticated or filed in a public office. Official certification is a certification by the appropriate government official that the original document has been filed in a public office and that the photocopy submitted is a true copy of the original document. Note: If the document has been filed in a public office, you must submit the original official certification along with the true copy of the original document. Photocopies of official certification are not acceptable.
• Complete on its own terms
  • A document must be complete on its own terms. If a document refers to any schedule, attachment, exhibit, appendix or other material as an integral part thereof, the document will be recorded only if the attachment is filed with the document or if the reference is deleted by the parties to the document.
  • In exceptional circumstances, the Copyright Office will record a document containing a reference to an attachment without accompanying the attached material and without deleting the reference if the person seeking the record requests in writing, or checks the appropriate box on Form DCS, that (a) the attachment is not material to the record, (b) the attachment is not essential to identifying the subject of the document, or (c) it is impossible or impractical for the person who executed the document to sign or initially sign an amendment to delete the attachment. If the Copyright Office receives such a request, it will record the document without contacting the filer and will make a note of the record; the note will appear on the certificate of recording and in the online public record of the document.
  • If a document appears on its face to be a self-contained portion of a larger instrument (e.g., labeled "Exhibit A" or "Exhibit B"), the Copyright Office will record the document if the person requesting the record states that the document is sufficiently complete in itself.
  • If a document merely identifies or incorporates by reference another document or certain provisions of the other document, the Copyright Office does not require that the other document be recorded.
• Readable
  • The document must be readable and capable of being reproduced in a readable image copy.
• Pay relevant fees

Other materials that may be submitted with the document

• Form DCS: The Copyright Office has created a "Document Cover Sheet" (Form DCS) to accompany any document filed for record under section 205 of the Copyright Act. The form is available on the Copyright Office website.
• Use of Form DCS is optional but encouraged because it provides several benefits, including allowing filers to request confirmation that the Copyright Office received a submitted document. It can also be used in certain circumstances to provide a sworn certification that a copy of a submitted record is a true copy of an original signed document, or to request a record containing a reference to an attachment without the attached attachment material. In addition, it helps promote better recordkeeping and communication between the Copyright Office and filers.
• Form DCS should only be used to record transfers of copyright ownership pursuant to section 205 of the Copyright Act or other copyright-related documentation and should not be used in connection with termination notices, designations of agents for online service providers, acknowledgments of anonymous/pseudonymous authorship, author death notices, visual arts registration notices, shareware registration notices, or other documentation not covered by this publication. Form DCS should also not be used to submit licensing department documents.
• When using Form DCS, two copies of the form should be prepared and submitted for each document submitted for record. If multiple documents are submitted for record in the same package, each individual document should be accompanied by two copies of Form DCS reflecting the information for that specific document. For example, if the submission includes four documents for record, four individually completed Form DCS should be accompanied, two copies for each document. The information provided on the form should be typed or legibly printed. Any form submitted will be imaged along with the document as part of the public record.

Electronic Title List

• The titles of copyrighted works associated with a document submitted for record are usually listed in an appendix to a paper document called a "title appendix." Normally, the Copyright Office manually transcribes the information in the paper title appendix into the public catalog. However, to expedite processing of documents containing a large number of titles, filers may submit an electronic title list if the submission contains 100 or more titles. This includes situations where there are multiple title lists associated with a document that contain a total of 100 or more titles. (Note: Submitting an electronic title list does not eliminate the need to submit a paper title appendix. The electronic list is not considered part of the document of record and is used only to index the titles and other information associated with the document of record.)
• Electronic title lists must be submitted in Excel (.xls) format or an equivalent electronic format approved by the Copyright Office. Electronic entries may contain only letters, numbers, and printable characters from the ASCII 128 character set. Each table must contain four columns, named "Article," "Title," "Author Information," and "Accession Number." Each title and its corresponding information must be in a separate row of the electronic table, as follows:
  • Articles. If the title begins with the articles specified below, the articles should be separated from the title and placed in the first column. Separating these leading articles helps the sorting function of the public directory. The following articles should be separated:
    • English: A, An, The
    • Spanish: Un, Una, El, La, Lo, Las, Los
    • French: L' (as in "L'Ecole"), Le, La, Les, Un, Une
    • German: Der, Die, Das, Einer, Eine, Ein For example, if the work is titled "A Hard Day's Night", the Article field should contain "A"; similarly, if the title is "The Fly", this field should contain "The". If the title does not begin with the above articles, this column should contain but this field should be left blank. Note that "These", "Those", "Some", and "Any" are not considered articles and do not need to be separated. Submitters are not required to separate articles in languages other than those listed above.
  • Title. The second column should list the title of the work, excluding any preceding articles from the above list. For example, if the work is titled "A Hard Day's Night," the Title field should contain the remainder of the title, "Hard Day's Night"; the Title field for "The Fly" should contain "Fly."
  • Author Information. The third column should contain "By" followed by the name of the author or authors of the work, such as "By John Lennon and Paul McCartney" or "By Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen". If the author name includes a designation such as "performer known as" or "also known as", this designation should be included in the Author Information field. If an abbreviation of such a designation is used, the abbreviation should be without punctuation. For example, "By Ella Yelich-O'Connor pka Lorde" (not "By Ella Yelich-O'Connor p/k/a Lorde").
  • Registration Number. The fourth column should list the copyright registration number associated with the work (if the submitter chooses to provide one). When a title is associated with more than one registration number, separate the numbers with commas. Although this field is optional, the column should be included and should be left blank even if no registration number is provided. Registration numbers in the electronic listing must be 12 characters, contain a two- or three-digit prefix of an uppercase letter, and may not contain spaces or hyphens. If the registration number is less than 12 characters, the submitter should add leading zeros before the numeric portion. For example, registration number "SR-320-918" for a published work should be transcribed as "SR0000320918." Similarly, registration number "VAu-598-764" for an unpublished work should be transcribed as "VAU000598764."
• The electronic list must be stored on a disc, flash drive, or other digital storage medium approved by the Copyright Office and clearly labeled with the following information: the name of the person filing the electronic list, the name of the first party listed on the paper document, the first title listed on the paper document, the number of titles included on the paper document, and the date the person filing the electronic list mailed or delivered the paper document. The storage medium storing the electronic list must be included in the same package as the paper document to be recorded, unless the Copyright Office agrees to another arrangement.
• The Copyright Office will rely on the electronic title list for indexing purposes of the submitted document and will note this fact in the record. Therefore, the submitter should ensure that the electronic title list fully and accurately reflects the titles contained in the paper document. If the electronic submission is inconsistent with the information in the paper document, such discrepancies will result in corresponding inaccuracies in the public directory, and the submitter will bear the legal consequences of such inaccuracies.
• Correcting Errors in the Electronic Title List
  If a filer discovers that an error or omission in the electronic title list results in an inaccurate index to a document of record in the online public catalog, the filer may submit a complete, corrected electronic title list with each line of the form highlighted in color to indicate the correction. The form title should include the words "Corrected Title List." The volume and file numbers of the associated document of record should also be included in the title, as well as in the title of the computer file containing the electronic title list. When submitting the list, the filer should include a cover letter that clearly references the volume and file numbers of the document of record, the name of the filer, the name of the first party listed in the paper document, and the first title listed in the paper document. Upon receipt of the properly formatted corrected electronic list and the appropriate fee, the Copyright Office will correct the data in the public catalog and record the corrections and the date they were made.

receipt

Because the processing of a filing can take months or longer, the Copyright Office provides an optional receipt confirmation system whereby a filer may request a receipt from the Copyright Office. A filer may request a receipt by sending two copies of Form DCS with the filing of a record and checking the box requesting a receipt, along with a self-addressed, prepaid envelope. Once the Copyright Office receives a filing of a record indicating that the filer seeks notice of a receipt, it will be returned to the filer in a self-addressed, prepaid envelope with a date stamp on one of the forms.

• The receipt only proves that the Copyright Office received the filing on the specified date. It does not prove that the document met the recording requirements or provide a recording date. Only a certificate of recording will provide a recording date.

Filing process

• Documents accepted for recording will be numbered, cataloged, and imaged for public record. They will be indexed in the Copyright Office's online public catalog by the name of the party, the title contained, and the applicable work registration number. The original document will be returned to the sender along with a certificate of recording with the date of recording and the volume and file number identifying the recorded document.

Record date

• The record date is the date the Copyright Office receives the proper written submission and the appropriate fee.