later than the year in which the work was first published, the U.S. Copyright Office considers the work to be published without any notice. If the work is submitted for registration more than five years after the date of first publication, the registration specialist will refuse to register the claim if he or she determines that the work is a U.S. work.
NOTE: This policy equally applies to certain works of visual art, such as jewelry, dolls, or toys that contain a postdated notice, notwithstanding the fact that a year date is not required in the notice for such works.
2205.1(E) Dispersed Date in a Notice
A year of publication that is separated from the rest of the notice may be acceptable if it is an appropriate date and if it is reasonably identifiable as part of the notice. For example, an appropriate year of publication may be acceptable if it is the only date that appears on the same page as the other elements of the notice.
Likewise, a year of publication that is prominently displayed elsewhere on copies or phonorecords may be acceptable if it is an appropriate date and if it can reasonably be considered part of the notice. For instance, the U.S. Copyright Office may accept a date that appears in the "Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data" or in the year of issue for a periodical, even if the date does not appear on the same page as the rest of the notice.
In those cases where a year is required and no year of publication can be reasonably identified as part of the notice, the Office will consider the work to be published without notice.
2205.1(F) Multiple Dates in a Notice
If the notice contains two or more dates and if none of those dates represent the year of first publication, the registration specialist will use the most recent date to determine if the work was published with an adequate notice.
If the notice contains earlier dates as well as the actual year of first publication, the specialist may communicate with the applicant if it appears that the work is a derivative work and the earlier dates refer to the date of publication for an earlier version [s] or edition(s) of the work. In this case the specialist will ask the applicant to complete the Limitation of Claim field/space in order to limit the claim to the new material appearing in the derivative work for the first time. Likewise, the specialist may communicate with the applicant if it appears that the earlier dates refer to the date of registration for any unclaimable material that has been incorporated into the work.
2205.2 Name
2205.2(A) Name of Copyright Owner
As a general rule, the copyright notice on both copies and phonorecords must include one of the following:
Chapter 2200 : 13
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