• The name of the owner of copyright in the work or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or
• A generally known alternative designation of the owner.
17 U.S.C. §§ 401(b)(3), 402(b)(3).
Ordinarily, the U.S. Copyright Office will not communicate with the applicant if the name in the notice appears sufficient to identify the copyright owner.
2205.2(B) Name of Copyright Owner Omitted
If a U.S. work was publicly distributed by authority of the copyright owner between January 1, 1978 and February 28, 1989 and if the notice does not contain a name that could reasonably be considered a part of the notice, the U.S. Copyright Office considers the work to be published without any notice.
2205.2(C) Owner Named in the Notice
For purposes of notice, the copyright owner is the "claimant" or proprietor of all rights at the time the work was published. For purposes of registration, the copyright claimant must be (i) the author of the work or (ii) a person or organization that has obtained all the exclusive rights of copyright that initially belonged to the author.
In most cases, the name provided in the application will be the same as the name that appears in the notice. In some cases, the claimant named in the application and the copyright owner named in the notice may be different. Both names may be correct, provided that the copyright was assigned to the copyright claimant between the date that the work was first published and the date that the application was submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office. In such situations, a transfer statement must be provided in the application.
If the claimant named in the application does not appear to be the author or owner of all U.S. rights in the work based on information provided elsewhere in the registration materials or obtained from other sources, the specialist will communicate with the applicant to resolve any inconsistency between the name provided in the application and the name in the notice.
2205.2(D) Variants, Abbreviations, Alternative Designations, or Pseudonyms for the Copyright Owner
A notice may contain an abbreviation by which the copyright owner can be recognized or a generally known alternative designation. In such cases, the applicant should provide the legal name of the claimant and specify the relationship between the legal name and the name that appears in the notice.
A recognizable abbreviation for the copyright owner's full name typically contains an abbreviation for each significant word in that name.
Example:
Chapter 2200 : 14
12/22/2014
