2012, and must be served no later than September 2, 2020. In this situation, the notice must be recorded with the U.S. Copyright Office no later than September 1, 2022.
The Office has developed a table that may be useful in identifying the beginning and ending of the termination period for a grant that did not convey the right of publication. This table may also be useful in selecting an effective date of termination and for calculating the relevant deadlines for serving a notice of termination on the grantee and for recording the notice with the Office. The table is posted on the following page of the Office's website: copyright.gov/comp3/docs/termination-table-section203rp.pdf.
2310.3(C)(2) Terminating a Grant That Conveys the Right of Publication
If the author conveyed the right to publish his or her work, then the beginning and ending of the termination period may be based on the month, day, and year that the grant was executed, or in the alternative, it may be based on the month, day, and year that the work was published. See 17 U.S.C. § 203(a)(3).
Specifically, the termination period either begins thirty-five years after the date that the work was published under the grant or forty years after the date that the grant was executed (whichever is earlier).
NOTE: The beginning and the end of the termination period are not based on the beginning or end of the calendar year, unless the date of execution or the date of publication happened to fall on January 1st or December 31st. Moreover, the date of publication under the grant may or may not be the same as the date that the work was first published or the date of publication specified in the certificate of registration for that work.
Example:
• A novel titled The Saddest Boy in the World was first published in hardback form on September 1, 1979; the certificate of registration states that the novel was first published on that date. On April 10, 1980 the author executed a contract to publish the novel in audiobook form. The audiobook was published under the contract on August 23, 1987. Because the contact conveyed the right of publication, the five-year termination period begins on April 10, 2020 (forty years from execution) rather than April 10, 2015 (thirty-five years from execution), August 23, 2022 (thirty-five years from the date of publication under the grant), or February 1, 2014 (thirty-five years from the date of publication specified in the certificate of registration). The termination period ends on April 10, 2025. If the author decides to make the termination effective on January 1, 2024, the notice may be served as early as January 1, 2014, and must be served no later than January 1, 2022. In this situation, the notice must be recorded with the Office no later than December 31, 2023.
Chapter 2300 : 49
12/22/2014
