NOTE: Visitors to the U.S. Copyright Office must pass through security before entering the building. Sealed packages or packages that are more than twenty-four inches wide by fifteen inches high are not permitted.
204.2 Filing Fee
The current filing fees for online and paper applications are set forth in the U.S. Copyright Office’s fee schedule, which is posted on the Office’s website at www.copyright.gov/docs/fees.html. All filing fees are subject to change. For information concerning the types of payments that the Office will accept, see Chapter 1400, Section 1403.4.
An application submitted with an insufficient filing fee will be delayed until the Office receives full payment, which affects the effective date of registration. If the Office does not receive the correct filing fee within the specified time frame, registration will be refused. For a discussion of the effective date of registration, see Section 209 below; for a discussion of the Office’s practices and procedures regarding insufficient filing fees, see Chapter 1400, Section 1403.7.
204.3 Deposit Copy(ies)
As a general rule, the applicant must submit a complete copy or copies of the work to register a claim to copyright. In certain cases, the U.S. Copyright Office may accept identifying material in lieu of a complete copy. (For a definition and discussion of identifying material, see Chapter 1500, Section 1506.) As discussed above, the deposit copy(ies) for a published work also may satisfy the mandatory deposit requirement for certain works that are published in the United States.
In specific instances, the deposit copy(ies) may be submitted in digital or physical format. The deposit copy(ies) must conform to certain requirements depending on the type of work, the deposit requirements, and whether the work is published or unpublished. As a general rule, the deposit copy(ies) should be clear and should contain all the authorship that the applicant intends to register. An application submitted with an incomplete or unclear deposit copy(ies) will be delayed until the Office receives a complete and/or clear copy. Delays due to incomplete and/or unclear deposit copy(ies) may affect the effective date of registration, which is discussed in Section 209 below.
Once the Office receives the registration materials, a registration specialist will examine the deposit copy(ies) to determine if the work is eligible for registration. The Office will not return the deposit copy(ies) or the identifying material to the applicant.
General information on the procedure for submitting the deposit copy(ies) in digital or physical format is set forth in Sections 204.3(A) and 204.3(A) below. For detailed information on the deposit requirements for registration and the mandatory deposit requirements, see Chapter 1500.
