Ch. 11
11.7.4
11.7.4
11-18
11.7.3
Executors.(cont'd)
II.
Author deceased prior to renewal year. The author need not live into the renewal year in order for his executors to claim.
III.
Qualification. In order to be regarded as an "executor," a claimant must have been named in the author's will, and presumably must have been qualified in probate proceedings. However, the Copyright Office will not refuse registration in the name of an executor even if the author's will has not been probated.
IV.
Personal right. The right to claim renewal as "executor" is a personal one, and the individual executor must be named in the renewal application.
a.
The author's. legatees have no right to claim renewal.
b.
A renewal claim cannot be registered in the name of "The Estate of John Doe," even if executors have not yet been qualified under the author's will.
V.
Intestate. In no case can the administrator of an intestate author's estate claim renewal.
11.7.4
Next of kin.
I.
Absence of will. If the author is dead and no widow or children survive him, and if there is "the absence of a Will," the author's next of kin are entitled to claim renewal.
II.
Definitions. The term "next of kin" refers only to blood relatives of the author.
a.
It is not clear whether the term· "next of kin" refer only to the living relatives of the nearest degree at consanguinity, or whether it also includes the descendants of dead relatives claiming on the theory of representation.
