The applicant should provide only one mailing address in the application. The Office will send a single copy of the certificate of registration to that address by first class mail. Additional copies of the certificate of registration may be obtained from the Office for an additional fee. For instructions on how to request additional copies of a certificate of registration, see Chapter 2400, Section 2408.
The name and mailing address provided in the application will appear on the certificate of registration, which will be made available to the public upon request, although it will not appear in the online public record. As discussed in Section 622.5, the Office will not remove this information from the registration record once a registration has been issued.
For a general discussion of privacy concerns, see Chapter 200, Section 205.
622.5 Privacy Concerns
Because registration records are open to the public, an applicant should not provide any private, confidential, or personally identifiable information that is not required for registration. Any information that is provided in the application may be made available to the general public through the U.S. Copyright Office’s online database and the public records of the Office.
If the applicant provides private, confidential, or personally identifiable information in the application, that information may appear on the certificate of registration as well as online public record for the work, which can be accessed by anyone who runs a search work on the Office’s website. This information also will be made a permanent part of public record, and as a general rule, the Office will not remove any information from public record once a registration has been issued.
For a general discussion of privacy issues, see Chapter 200, Section 205.
623 Special Handling
This Section discusses the U.S. Copyright Office’s practices and procedures for special handling.
623.1 What Is Special Handling?
Special handling is a procedure for expediting the examination of an application to register a claim to copyright or the recordation of a document pertaining to copyright. The U.S. Copyright Office offers this service in certain circumstances where a copyright owner or other interested parties have a compelling reason for the expedited issuance of a certificate of registration or a certificate of recordation, as described in Section 623.2. The Office charges an additional fee for this service, which is discussed in Section 623.6.
The copyright law provides that a work of authorship is protected by copyright from the moment it is fixed in a tangible medium of expression and that a registration or recordation is not a prerequisite for such protection. 17 U.S.C. §§ 102(a), 408(a). However, registration is required in order to institute a lawsuit for the infringement of a U.S. work, and recordation is required in order to obtain the benefit of certain statutory
