- copyright in the contribution. For guidance on providing a transfer statement, see Section 620.9.
If the work contains contributions created by other authors, the applicant should repeat the process set forth in the bullets immediately above for each contribution that the applicant intends to register.
To register a collective work and/or a contribution to a collective work with a paper application, the applicant should identify the authorship that the applicant intends to register in space 2 under the heading Nature of Authorship.
For representative examples that demonstrate how to complete the Author Created field and the Nature of Authorship space in an application to register a contribution to a collective work, see Section 618.7(D).
618.7(C) Asserting a Claim to Copyright in a Serial Publication
This Section discusses the procedure for asserting a claim to copyright in a specific type of collective work, namely, a single issue of a serial publication. A serial publication is a collective work that is published or intended to be published at regular or stated intervals on an indefinite basis where each issue is numbered or dated consecutively, such as a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(1)(v).
If the applicant intends to register a single issue of a serial publication, then as discussed in Section 609.2(A), the applicant should select Single Serial Issue from the drop down menu on the Type of Work screen.
If the applicant intends to register the issue as a whole, the applicant should check the “compilation” box that appears on the Authors screen in the Author Created field.
If the author of the issue as a whole created one or more of the contributions that appear in the issue, and if that party owns the copyright in those contribution(s), the applicant may register the contributions by checking the box marked “Contribution(s) to a collective work (e.g., an article).” The title(s) of the contribution(s) may be provided on the Titles screen in the Contents Title field using the procedure described in Section 610.4, although this is optional.
If the contribution was created by an individual or entity other than the author for the issue as a whole, the applicant may register that contribution using the procedure described in Section 618.7(B), provided that the claimant owns the copyright in that contribution.
For representative examples that demonstrate how to complete the Author Created field and the Nature of Authorship space in an application to register a single serial issue and/or a contribution to a single serial issue, see Section 618.7(D). For guidance on registering a single issue of a serial publication with a paper application on Form SE, see Chapter 700, Section 712. For a discussion of the group registration options for serials, daily newspapers, daily newsletters, and contributions to periodicals, see Chapter 1100, Sections 1109, 1110, 1111, and 1115.
