If the request is made in person at the Public Information Office, the special handling fee may be paid in cash, by credit card, by check, or it may be charged to a deposit account.
If the request is delivered by mail or by private courier, the special handling fee may be paid by check or it may be charged to a deposit account.
Checks must be made payable to the Register of Copyrights, they must be payable in U.S. dollars, they must be imprinted with an American Banking Association routing number, and they must be redeemable through a U.S. institution without a service charge or exchange fee. International money orders and foreign postal money orders that are negotiable only at a post office will not be accepted.
If the Office issues a certificate of registration or a certificate of recordation, and if the payment for the special handling fee is returned for insufficient funds, the registration or recordation will be cancelled.
See Policy Decision: Revised Special Handling Procedures, 56 Fed. Reg. at 37,528; Policy Decision Announcing Fee for Special Handling of Applications for Copyright Registration, 47 Fed. Reg. at 19,254.
623.7 Special Handling for Multiple Applications That Share the Same Deposit Copy
On occasion, an applicant will submit multiple applications together with a single deposit copy, and will ask the U.S. Copyright Office to process some – but less than all – of those applications on an expedited basis. In such cases, the Office will expedite the examination of the applications for which special handling has been requested, but will not expedite the examination of the other applications. However, the applicant must pay an additional fee, which will be added to the filing fee for each application and the special handling fee. The fee for this service is set forth in the fee schedule on the Office’s website on the line marked “Additional fee for each (non-special-handling) claim using the same deposit” (www.copyright.gov/docs/fees.html).
Before processing each application the Office will ask the applicant to submit the additional fee (if it has not been paid). If the applicant prefers to avoid the additional fee, the applicant may submit a separate deposit copy for the applications that do not require special handling.
Example:
- Grantham Records intends to register a compact disc containing seven tracks. The company submits seven applications on Form PA for each song on the CD, one application on Form SR for the sound recording, and one application on Form VA for the artwork that appears on the cover of the CD. The company submits a single CD as the deposit copy for all of its applications. Grantham asks the Office to process the application for the first song on an expedited basis, because the company intends to file a lawsuit against a website that is streaming the song without permission. Grantham submits the filing fee for each application and the special handling fee for the
