that identifies the author of the work, the general subject matter of the work, the type of work submitted for registration, or any other relevant information that a person searching the U.S. Copyright Office’s records is likely to include in his or her search request.
Examples:
- Sculpture of a Green Frog, Preliminary Study in Clay by Quang Ha (Spring 2008).
- Painting on Illustration Board by Imran Latif (2010).
- Photo Taken at Sand Hill Cove, Narragansett, Rhode Island by Ann McKenna (2012).
- Working Title: Zuzu’s Petals.
If the author decides to change the title after the work has been registered, the applicant may file an application on Form CA to reflect the new title in the online public record. For guidance on completing Form CA, see Chapter 1800, Section 1802.8. If a previously registered, unpublished work is later published with a new title, the applicant may choose to reflect the new title by filing an application for a new basic registration for the first published edition of the work. (This is permissible even if the published edition is exactly the same as the previously registered, unpublished edition.) For information concerning this practice, see Chapter 500, Section 510.1.
610.6(B) Descriptive Titles That Appear to Be Incorrect
If the applicant provides a descriptive title that does not appear to describe the work that has been submitted for registration (such as “Print No. 1” or “Study in Red” for a painting that is black and white), the registration specialist generally will accept the title specified in the application. However, the specialist may communicate with the applicant if there is a substantial variance between the title provided in the application and the title that appears on the deposit copy(ies). For examples of a substantial variance, see Section 610.6(D)(4).
610.6(C) Titles Consisting of Roman Letters and Arabic Numerals
The U.S. Copyright Office’s electronic registration system only accepts titles consisting of Roman letters and/or Arabic numerals. It does not accept titles consisting of other types of letters, numerals, or characters, such as Cyrillic or Mandarin. Nor does it accept diacritical marks used in Spanish, French, German, or other foreign languages, such as ç, à, ñ, or ü.
The system will accept titles written in a foreign language, provided that the title consists of Roman letters and/or Arabic numerals. The title will appear on both the certificate of registration and the online public record, but without any diacritical marks.
