- The author of the work.
- An owner of all the rights under copyright that initially belonged to the author of the work.
- An owner of one or more – but less than all – of the exclusive rights in the work.
- A duly authorized agent of any of the foregoing parties.
No other parties are entitled to file an application for copyright registration. See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(c)(1).
When completing an application, the applicant will be asked to provide the name, address, and other contact information for the person or persons who should be contacted if the registration specialist has questions or concerns regarding the application. This person is known as the correspondent. In most cases, the correspondent and the applicant are the same person, because the correspondent typically certifies and submits the application. In all cases, the correspondent must be one of the following parties:
- An author of the work.
- An owner of all the rights under copyright that initially belonged to the author of the work.
- An owner of one or more – but less than all – of the exclusive rights in the work.
- A duly authorized agent of any of the foregoing parties.
619.6 Naming the Author as Claimant
If the author owns all the rights under the copyright as of the date that the application is filed, the author must be named in the application as the copyright claimant. An application to register the copyright in the author’s name may be certified and submitted by the author or by the author’s duly authorized agent. In this situation, the author is considered the claimant and the author or the author’s agent is considered the applicant (dependent upon who certified and submitted the application.)
619.7 The Author May Be Named as Claimant Even if the Author Has Transferred the Copyright to Another Party
The author may always be named as the copyright claimant, even if the author has transferred the copyright or one or more of the exclusive rights to another party, or even if the author does not own any of the rights under copyright when the application is filed. This is due to the fact that the author always retains a legal or equitable interest in the copyright, even if the copyright has been licensed or assigned to a third party. See generally Registration of Copyright: Definition of Claimant, 77 Fed. Reg. 29,257, 29,258 (May 17, 2012); Applications for Registration of Claim to Copyright Under Revised Copyright Act, 42 Fed. Reg. 48,944, 48,945 (Sept. 26, 1977).
