- The authorship in the separate and independent works that have been included in the collective work, which may contain literary expression and/or artistic expression.
An applicant may register a collective work together with the separate and independent works contained therein if the collective work and the contributions were created by the same author and/or if the copyright in the collective work and the contributions are owned by the copyright claimant. If the copyright in the collective work and the contributions to the collective work are owned by different parties, separate applications for each work will be required based on the difference in ownership. For additional information concerning collective works, see Chapter 500, Section 509.
When asserting a claim in a collective work and/or a contribution to a collective work, the applicant should identify the copyrightable authorship that the applicant intends to register, and the applicant should assert a claim to copyright in that material using the procedures described in Chapter 600, Sections 618.7 and 621.8(E).
For guidance on the deposit requirements for a contribution to a collective work, see Chapter 1500, Section 1505.5.
712 Serials
This Section discusses the U.S. Copyright Office’s practices and procedures for registering a single issue of a serial publication, such as single issue of a magazine or a single volume of a journal.
NOTE: The Office has established a procedure that allows copyright owners to register a group of serials, a group of newspapers, or a group of newsletters with one application and one filing fee. The requirements for these group registration options are discussed in Chapter 1100, Sections 1109 through 1111.
712.1 What Is a Serial?
A serial is a work that is issued or intended to be issued in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designations that are intended to be continued indefinitely. Examples include periodicals, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, journals, bulletins, annuals, the proceedings of societies, and other similar works. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(1)(v).
712.2 Copyrightable Authorship in Serials
Serials are considered collective works, because they typically contain “a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, [that] are assembled into a collective whole.” 17 U.S.C. § 101 (definition of “collective work”). As such, serials typically contain two different types of authorship:
- The authorship in the compilation, which may involve selecting, coordinating, and/or arranging the various contributions to the serial, and/or editing, annotating, and/or revising the contributions or the serial as a whole.
