621.9(F)(4) Claim in De Minimis Authorship: Registration Refused
If the registration specialist determines that the author’s contribution is de minimis, and if there appears to be no other basis for asserting a valid claim in the work, the specialist will refuse registration.
621.9(G) Discrepancies Involving the Copyright Notice
621.9(G)(1) Published Works
The presence of multiple year dates in the copyright notice for a published work (e.g., © Mountain View Software 2004, 2005, 2006) may indicate that portions of the work have been previously published or previously registered. Likewise, a copyright notice that precedes the date of publication for a published work by two or more years (e.g., Rise and Shine, published January 2008, © Sunny Day Inc. 2005) may indicate that the work contains previously published or previously registered material. In this situation, the registration specialist may question an application if the applicant fails to complete the Limitation of Claim screen in an online application or spaces 5, 6(a), and/or 6(b) in a paper application.
621.9(G)(2) Unpublished Works
The presence of an earlier date or multiple dates in the copyright notice for an unpublished work does not necessarily mean that the work contains unclaimable material. However, if the date clearly refers to previously published material or previously registered material, the registration specialist will communicate with the applicant if the applicant failed to complete the Limitation of Claim screen or spaces 5, 6(a), and/or 6(b) of the paper application.
621.9(H) Discrepancies Involving the Registration Number or Year of Registration in a Paper Application
If the applicant checks the “yes” box on space 5 of a paper application without providing a registration number and/or year of registration, the registration specialist may either communicate with the applicant, or may attempt to locate the previous registration information in the U.S. Copyright Office’s records. In conducting such a search, the specialist will only look for works that have been registered under the exact same title as the work described in the application.
If there is no record of a previous registration under the same title, the specialist may complete the registration and add an annotation to the registration record, such as: “Regarding previous registration: Copyright Office records show no previous registration under this title.”
If the work described in the application has been published, and if the specialist finds another work registered under the exact same title, he or she may add the previous registration number and year to the registration record. If the previous registration is for an unpublished version of the work described in the application, the specialist may explain that the Office is issuing a new registration for the first published edition of this work by giving an annotation, such as: “Regarding previous registration: registration
