If the work contains an appreciable amount of unclaimable material, the applicant must exclude that material from the claim and limit the application to the new copyrightable material that the author contributed to the work. When completing an online application the applicant should provide this information on the Limitation of Claim screen; when completing a paper application, the applicant should provide this information in spaces 5 and/or 6(a) and 6(b) of the application.
For a discussion of the U.S. Copyright Office’s practices and procedures for limiting a claim to copyright, see Section 621.
618.3 The Relationship Between the Author Created / Limitation of Claim Fields in the Online Application and the Relationship between Spaces 2, 5, 6(a), and 6(b) in the Paper Application
As a general rule, a claim to copyright is defined by the information provided in the Author Created field (in the case of an online application) or in the Nature of Authorship space (in the case of a paper application). Therefore, all of the copyrightable material that the applicant intends to register should be identified in these fields/spaces.
When an applicant excludes material from the claim and limits the application to the new copyrightable material that the author contributed to the work, the claim to copyright is defined by the information provided in the New Material Included field of the online application or the information provided in space 6(b) of the paper application as modified by the material excluded field/space. Therefore, all of the new copyrightable material that the applicant intends to register should be described in the New Material Included field or in space 6(b), as applicable.
618.4 Completing the Application: Author Created / Nature of Authorship
This Section provides guidance on completing the Author Created field in the online application and the Nature of Authorship space in the paper application. For guidance on completing an application to register a derivative work, a compilation, or a collective work, see Sections 618.5, 618.6, and 618.7. For guidance on completing an application to register specific types of literary works, works of the performing arts, and visual art works, see Chapters 700, 800, and 900.
618.4(A) The Online Application: Author Created Field
When completing an online application, the applicant should identify the authorship that the applicant intends to register on the Authors screen by checking one or more of the boxes in the Author Created field that accurately describe the authorship that is owned by the copyright claimant. (When completing a Single Application the applicant should provide this information on the Author screen in the Author Created field.)
The options for each type of work are listed below:
Literary Works
- Text
- Photograph(s)
- Artwork
