- and formulaic, such as “knit 1, purl 2.” The registration specialist will communicate with the applicant. The claim in “artwork” and “photographs” is acceptable, but the claim in “text” is not, because the instructional text, taken as a whole, is de minimis.
- Paulina Neumann submits an application to register a recipe for a caesar salad. In the Author Created field, the applicant asserts a claim in “text.” The work contains a list of eleven ingredients together with the following instructions: “(1) puree anchovies, garlic, dijon, egg yolks, (2) drizzle oil in gradually to emulsify; (3) add lemon, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, Worcestershire and tobasco sauce.” The registration specialist will refuse to register the claim, because the list of ingredients is not copyrightable and the instructional text is de minimis.
For a discussion of the deposit requirements for an instructional work, see Chapter 1500, Section 1509.1(F).
717 Legal Materials
Certain types of legal materials may be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office if they contain a sufficient amount of original expression. Examples of legal materials that may satisfy this requirement are discussed in Sections 717.1 through 717.3 below.
When submitting an application to register these types of works, the claim should be limited to the new material that appears in the work, the applicant should provide the name of the author who created that material, and the applicant should provide the name of the claimant who owns the copyright in that material. The Literary Division may accept a claim in “text” if the work contains a sufficient amount of written expression, or a claim in “artwork” and/or “photograph(s)” if the work contains a sufficient amount of pictorial or graphic expression. When completing an online application, this information should be provided in the Author Created field, and if applicable, also in the New Material Included field. When completing a paper application on Form TX, this information should be provided in space 2, and if applicable, also in space 6(b). For guidance on completing these portions of the application, see Chapter 600, Sections 618.4 and 621.8.
Certain types of legal materials may be registered as a compilation if the author exercised a sufficient amount of creativity in selecting, coordinating, and/or arranging the preexisting materials that appear within the deposit. When asserting a claim in a compilation, the applicant should provide the name of the author who created the selection, coordination, and/or arrangement 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, Section 618.6.
As discussed in Sections 717.1 and 717.2, legal materials often contain a substantial amount of content that is not eligible for copyright protection. They also may contain a substantial amount of content that is in the public domain, content that has been previously published, content that has been previously registered, or content that is
