The information provided in these fields/spaces will appear on the certificate of registration in the field marked Limitation of Copyright Claim and in the online public record in the fields marked Preexisting Material and Basis of Claim (regardless of whether the applicant submits an online application or a paper application).
Completing these fields/spaces correctly is essential to defining the claim that is being registered and it ensures that the public record will be accurate. The registration specialist may either annotate the registration record or communicate with the applicant if the work appears to be a derivative work, a compilation, a collective work, or any other work containing an appreciable amount of unclaimable material and if the applicant fails to exclude that unclaimable material from the claim.
Examples:
- Excluding previously published material. The Slow Food Press published a self-help book titled Navigating the Supermarket. The first edition was published in 2009 and the second edition was published in 2010. Because the second edition contains an appreciable amount of previously published material from the first edition, the publisher should exclude that material from the application to register the second edition by stating “previously published edition” in the Material Excluded field and “new text” in the New Material Included field.
- Excluding previously registered material. ClamCake Software created a computer program called Sharkbyte v. 1.0, which was registered in 1999. ClamCake used an appreciable portion of the source code for this program to create a new program called Sharkbyte v. 2.0. Because the new program contains an appreciable amount of previously registered material, ClamCake should exclude that material from the application to register Sharkbyte v 2.0 by providing the registration number for version 1.0 in the Previous Registration field or by stating “previously registered version” in the Material Excluded field and by stating “new computer code” in the New Material Included field.
- Excluding public domain material. Alice Masters created a poster that is closely based on illustrations that appear in the book The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Because her poster contains an appreciable amount of public domain material, Alice should exclude that material from the application to register her poster by stating “some public domain material” in the Material Excluded field and “new artwork” in the New Material Included field.
- Excluding material that is owned by an individual or legal entity other than the claimant. Kieran O’Brien submits an application to register a children’s book. The copyright notice for this work reads “illustrations © Kieran O’Brien; text © Leaf Garrett.” If the children’s book is not a joint work, and if Kieran does not own the
